The Diplomat
A total of 17 Latin American start-ups participated throughout this week in the second edition of the ‘Spain-Latam Scale-up’ programme, organised by ICEX-Invest in Spain, IDB Lab and Endeavo, with the aim of informing these companies about the opportunities and steps needed to establish themselves in Spain as a bridge to global expansion.
The 17 start-ups and scale-ups come from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru and were selected from among 360 candidates to take part in an immersion programme that began last Monday and will take place over five days. In addition to Madrid, the participants will also be in Barcelona and will travel to Bilbao and Valencia, where they will meet with startups representing the productive fabric of these provinces, to acquire a broad and deep knowledge of the Spanish entrepreneurship ecosystem.
A total of 42 speakers from the Spanish entrepreneurship ecosystem took part in the programme, including representatives from institutions, venture capital (VC) funds, corporations with open innovation processes and successful Spanish and Latin American startups in Spain.
The programme lasted until Friday and counted with the collaboration of key players in the Spanish entrepreneurship ecosystem such as South Summit, The Venture City, Wayra, Google Campus, Barcelona Activa and Tech Barcelona, among others.
At the welcome session, the CEO of ICEX, Maria Peña, highlighted ICEX’s commitment to the technology entrepreneurship ecosystem in Spain by guiding Spanish startups towards a global perspective from the beginning, so that internationalisation is “their engine of growth”, but also by actively accompanying foreign startups to establish themselves in Spain”.
In this regard, she stressed the role of the ‘Spain Latam Scale-Up’ programme in enriching the Spanish productive fabric by strengthening the ties between the entrepreneurial ecosystems of Spain and Europe and those of Latin America.
For his part, the representative of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Europe, Fazia Pusterla, expressed the institution’s commitment to supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem and building bridges between Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe.
She also valued the contribution of the region’s companies in offering solutions to global challenges. “The cohort of this second edition exemplifies the dynamism and diversity of the sectors in which Latin American companies specialise,” he said.
Meanwhile, the general director of Endeavor Spain, Antonio Iglesias, referred to the importance of the international expansion of startups on their way to becoming high-impact ventures.
“For companies from Latin American markets, Spain should be a strategic market: on the one hand, it is a gateway to Europe and, on the other, it is a country that has committed to developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem and attracting the best international talent,” he explained.
Spain-Latam Scale-up’ combines technical sessions, work meetings, institutional meetings and networking activities. Among others, aspects such as the financing of start-ups in Spain, access to funds, financing opportunities offered by the European Union, legal and tax requirements for setting up in the country, visas for entrepreneurs and the possibility of collaborating in the open innovation activities of Spanish companies will be addressed.
At the end of the immersion programme, the startups will have received key information about the business climate in the country and will have discussed with experts the legal, operational and technological aspects necessary to establish themselves in Spain as a bridge to global expansion of their business.
The programme selects some of the most promising companies in Latin America. The selection criteria considered were the scalability of the companies based on consolidated, innovative business models with a presence in several countries, and their financial capacity, while at the same time taking into account the incorporation of sustainability and impact criteria in their operations.
