The Diplomat
ICEX-Invest in Spain, IDB LAB and Endeavor launched yesterday in Madrid the first edition of España-Latam Scale-up, an advisory program for Latin American start-ups and scale-ups to facilitate their establishment in Spain as a first step for their global expansion.
In total, thirteen Latin American start-ups from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay have been selected from among 140 candidates. The program is being developed between November 14 and 18 in Madrid and Barcelona, in collaboration with important players in the Spanish entrepreneurship ecosystem, such as Google Campus, South Summit, Wayra, IE University, Barcelona Activa or Barcelona Tech City, among others.
During the immersion program, the winning startups will acquire a broad and deep knowledge of the Spanish entrepreneurship ecosystem. To this end, more than 40 speakers from the Spanish entrepreneurship ecosystem will participate in the program, including institutions, venture capital (VC) funds, corporations with open innovation processes and successful startups in Spain, both Spanish and Latin American. The selected companies are among the most promising in the region, have significant financial and innovative capacity to address the Spanish and European market, as well as a high social and environmental commitment.
The program is the first initiative to facilitate the implementation of Latin American startups in Spain by ICEX-Invest in Spain (the government platform to promote, attract and encourage foreign investment in Spain, as well as reinvestments of foreign companies already established in the country), IDB LAB (the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, the main source of financing and knowledge for development focused on improving lives in Latin America and the Caribbean) and Endeavor (a global organization present in more than 40 countries that supports more than 2,300 entrepreneurs around the world) and Endeavor (a global organization present in more than 40 countries that supports more than 2,300 entrepreneurs worldwide who generate more than $42 billion in revenue).
At the end of the immersion program, the startups will have received key information about the business climate in the country and will have shared with experts the legal, operational and technological aspects necessary to approach the establishment in Spain as a bridge to a global expansion of their business.
The España-Latam Scale-up program has selected the companies based on their ability to scale up from consolidated, innovative business models with a presence in several countries. Their financial capacity and the incorporation of sustainability and impact criteria in their operations were also taken into account.
At the welcome session, held yesterday at ICEX headquarters in Madrid under the chairmanship of ICEX CEO, María Peña, the executive director of ICEX-Invest in Spain, Elisa García Grande, highlighted the maturity of the technology entrepreneurship ecosystem in Spain and showed success stories of Latin American technology companies already established in Spain. Fazia Pusterla, representative of IDB Europe, pointed out the institution’s commitment to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem and highlighted the contribution of the companies supported by IDB Lab to offer solutions to the challenges of structural transformation in the region.
For his part, the general director of Endeavor Spain, Antonio Iglesias, gave a presentation on the main players in the technology entrepreneurship ecosystem in Spain and emphasized the key role that Spain plays as a gateway to Europe for Latin American entrepreneurs and the relevance of the tools and contacts provided by the program to enable their expansion.
