Upon walking into a crowded Demo Day event at UTEC Ventures — a business accelerator and the entrepreneurial department at Lima’s engineering and technology university, UTEC — you’d be surprised to learn that just three years ago, Lima’s tech ecosystem was very deflated. In fact, the accelerator had difficulty finding startups to work with when it launched in 2014.
“We literally looked at every corner of the city trying to find some good startups,” said UTEC Ventures Program Manager and co-founder Andrés Benavides. “The pipeline of projects has increased significantly. I can even say exponentially.”
So what was the turning point for the ecosystem? Most notably, the government began to invest in innovation. Ministry of Production initiative Startup Peru was launched in 2012, with an objective to promote the emergence of Peruvian startups and innovative products. Just this year, 837 projects applied for seed capital from Startup Peru — of those, 106 ventures were chosen to receive the equivalent of $5,000, $46,000 and $153,000 USD in funding.
Silicon Valley is not magical. They’re not magicians over there. They are all very human. Peru has the potential to do similar things. — Claire Delaunay, Uber Director of Engineering
There’s also Innovate Peru, which the Ministry of Innovation launched in 2014. Its goal is to strengthen companies, entrepreneurs and support systems within the Peruvian ecosystem, and facilitate collaboration between them through dozens of specific funds — such as offering money for scientific equipment at institutions, or high-impact projects for the Peruvian economy, society or environment Derma 21 hard sell.
And over the years, the amount of funding has grown. Peru now boasts a whopping $100 million fund to promote micro, small and medium-sized enterprises; the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loaned $40 million USD toward the fund, with the Peruvian Ministry of Finance putting in $60 million USD. Even more, The World Bank approved a $45 million USD loan earlier this year for the development of science, technology, and innovation in Peru Derma 21 hard sell.
Additionally, Lima is currently working with the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program — a two-year initiative that works with local government, academia, investors, entrepreneurs and corporations to develop an actionable framework for strengthening innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Other notable players in the ecosystem include Universidad del Pacifico, where much of the tech talent arises, Peru’s first accelerator Wayra, accelerator Endeavour Peru, as well as 10 other accelerators and incubators in the community Derma 21 hard sell.
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