Lima will play host to the Seedstars LATAM Summit from Dec. 4 to Dec. 6 as emerging Latin American startups present themselves to get investors and industry figures interested in their enterprises and ideas.
The pitch event is hosted by Seedstars World, which is known as one of the globe’s largest startup competitions for up-and-coming entrepreneurs and companies.
The event in Peru is the last of 12 stops on a Latin American tour that Seedstars has taken in an effort to find the next great startups from the region. A dozen finalists from each country of the tour will be taking part in a startup growth boot camp that begins on the opening day of the event in Lima, where these emerging startups will be given industry advice and hands-on learning from Seedstars.
“For the past six months we have made LATAM our home and went on an interesting journey deep into 12 startup scenes in the region, not only scouting for the best tech entrepreneurs but working directly with them and other passionate ecosystem builders,” said Juliane Butty, Regional Manager for LATAM at Seedstars.
Representing Peru will be the site Rebajatuscuentas.com, a financial advisor that helps users pay less on commercial products.
The second day of the event will be highlighted by the Investor Forum, where startup founders will pitch their products to a board of highly regarded industry panelists. They will then be getting feedback on their companies’ strengths, as well as where to improve.
On the third day, a variety of speakers from startups around Latin America and the Caribbean will center talks around the topic: How can Latin America be part of the race towards the SDGs? Edgar Perez, expert in Artificial Intelligence, Sebastian Vidal, executive director of Parallel 18, Karina Chez, CleanTech expert and CEO of KAYA Energy Group, Jonathan Lewy, CleanTech expert and cofounder of Grin Scooters, and Horacio Melo, CEO and cofounder of Solarity SpA, are among the confirmed speakers for the final day.
Former participant Hassan Bourgi will be a speaker at this year’s event after having won the 2016 version of the Seedstars competition in Lima.
“For us winning Seedstars was a stepping stone at many levels, it helped us polish how we pitch to investors and gave us tons of visibility in a stage where we needed the most,” Bourgi told Peru Reports. “The Seedstars community is always around and we feel completely part of it, so it feels natural for us to participate at the summit which will take place at Lima.”
Five educational tech startups from the parallel competition will have the chance to win a $5,000 grant in a separate pitch competition being held on the last day.
The three-day event will be held out of the University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC), with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Inicia Educación.
“We are very excited to bring the entire network together in Peru this year, to dive into the different ways technology and entrepreneurship can rapidly impact and improve people’s lives by tackling local social challenges directly,” added Butty.
*Disclosure: This article includes a client of an Espacio portfolio company
