·  The 17 startups come from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru and have been selected out of 360 candidates.

·  The selected companies have a proven financial and innovative capacity to target the Spanish and European markets.

The second edition of the Spain-Latam Scale-up programme organised by ICEX-Invest in Spain, IBD LAB and Endeavor kicks off this Monday to provide a selection of Latin American startups and scaleups with the opportunities and steps necessary to establish themselves in Spain as a bridge to global expansion.

After a selection process involving 360 startup  candidates, 17 Latin American startups from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru start this 5-day immersion programme in which they will travel to Madrid and Barcelona. This is in addition to meeting with startups representing the Bilbao and Valencia ecosystems in order to acquire a broad and deep knowledge of the Spanish entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Forty-two speakers from the Spanish entrepreneurship ecosystem will participate, featuring some of its main players and including institutions, venture capital (VC) funds, corporations with open innovation processes and successful startups in Spain, both Spanish and Latin American. The programme will take place  between 13 and 17 November in collaboration with leading 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, ICEX CEO Maria Peña highlighted ICEX's commitment to the technology entrepreneurship ecosystem in Spain by “guiding Spanish startups towards a global perspective from the outset, so that internationalisation is their growth driver”, but also “actively supporting foreign startups to establish themselves in Spain”. In this regard, she highlighted the role of the Spain Latam Scale-Up programme in enriching the Spanish productive fabric by “strengthening the ties between the entrepreneurial ecosystems in Spain and Europe and those in Latin America”.

Fazia Pusterla, the representative of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Europe, pointed out the institution's commitment to supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem and building bridges between Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe. She also highlighted the contribution of the region's companies in offering solutions to global challenges. “The cohort of this 2nd edition exemplifies the dynamism and diversity of the sectors in which Latin American companies specialise (HealthTech, EdTech, FinTech, among others). IDB LAB's support for creating entrepreneurial ecosystems and startups in all phases of their development, from conceptualisation to scalability and internationalisation, is fundamental”.

The Managing Director of Endeavor Spain, Antonio Iglesias, did in turn highlight in his speech 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 is committed to developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem and to attracting the best international talent. The selected companies have great potential to establish themselves in Europe, to become leaders in their sectors and,  this is why the combined forces of ICEX, IDB LAB and Endeavor is undoubtedly the best opportunity to accelerate this process”.

Spain-Latam Scale-up combines technical sessions, working meetings, institutional meetings and networking activities. Aspects to be addressed include startup financing 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.

The 17 selected startups come from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru, and are:

·  Acreditta (Colombia). A digital credential platform to certify skills and knowledge in a globally accepted standard that is also on blockchain.

·  Coding Dojo Latam (Chile). A digital careers academy established in California that today operates in 7 countries, and with the differential of transforming people with no experience into professionals ready for the job market in weeks.

·  Controlt (Colombia). This company offers a suite of software solutions for freight transport: it integrates data sources, gives them value for decision-making and facilitates transparent and timely sharing of information between stakeholders.

·  Cuéntame (México). A mental health platform for Spanish and Portuguese speakers that integrates a diagnosis powered by artificial intelligence to identify the mental health status of employees and the organisation, providing personalised treatment.

·  Datasketch (Colombia). A startup that democratises data science by allowing non-technical users to create graphs, dashboards and web pages by connecting spreadsheets. They turn information into actionable insights to optimise the use of data.

·  Embryoxite (Argentina). A biotech company pioneering a new diagnostic test based on embryo metabolism that increases the chances of pregnancy in IVF treatment by over 75%.

·  Evoting (Chile). This company focuses on online voting for associations, universities and regional governments, as well as shareholder meetings and virtual assemblies for unions and companies in nine countries in the region.

·  Excuela (Peru). This company offers a scalable mobile learning system for operators and frontline workers. They merge technology and pedagogy, benefiting people with limited connectivity and study habits, promoting growth and social impact.

·  Labor financiera (Colombia). A fintech specialising in helping pensioners solve their financial problems, enabling them to recover their credit score and access banking services through drawdown loans or direct deductions from their pensions.

·  Nippy (Argentina). Workertech platform focused on the future of digital freelancers and on creating benefits to impact their productivity and quality of life.

·  Pixdea (Costa Rica) This company has two missions: an artificial intelligence-powered application that guides and protects students, detecting and preventing situations of school violence, and a virtual reality training platform that allows companies to improve and optimise their internal training processes.

·  Pluginbot (Brazil). A technology startup that has developed a platform for integrated multi-robot management, AI, and data intelligence applications for real-time decision-making.

·  Personal2travel (Brazil). This company helps the tourism industry (destinations and companies) to get to know travellers better and to organise better trips for them through hyper-socialisation, intelligence and sustainability solutions.

·  Preauth (Peru). This company helps businesses ensure that their customers honour their payment promises by pre-authorising their assets as collateral.

·  Rapihogar (Argentina). This company specialises in providing and marketing assistance and claims management services for people, homes, property and pets. It offers innovative solutions to everyday problems through partners in the banking, insurance and corporate sectors.

·  Streamshop (Brazil). This company develops new technology to humanise online business through video sessions in multiple formats adapted to different business models.

·  Ucrop (Argentina). This company facilitates global sustainable agriculture by connecting farmers and agribusinesses to set and map sustainable targets from farm to fork, generating valuable evidence-based information.

At the end of the immersion programme, the startups will have received key information on the business climate in Spain and will have discussed with experts the legal, operational and technological aspects required to establish themselves in Spain as a bridge to global expansion of their business.

The Spain-Latam Scale-up programme has selected some of the most promising companies in Latin America. The selection criteria for the winning startups included the companies' ability to scale up based on consolidated, innovative business models with a presence in several countries, their financial capacity and their ability to incorporate sustainability and impact criteria into their operations.

About ICEX-Invest in Spain
ICEX's Invest in Spain Executive Directorate is responsible for promoting, attracting and encouraging foreign investment in Spain, as well as reinvestment by foreign companies already established in the country. It also performs activities to position Spain as a global platform for international business and investment. Another area of action for ICEX-Invest in Spain relates to improving the business climate in Spain in continuous dialogue with other ministerial departments and with business associations and companies established in Spain, both Spanish-owned ones and those with investment from third countries.

About IDB Lab
IDB Lab is the innovation lab for the Inter-American Development Bank Group, the leading source of development finance and knowledge focused on improving lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. The purpose of IDB Lab is to drive innovation for inclusion in the region, mobilising funding, knowledge and connections to test early-stage private sector solutions with the potential to transform the lives of populations made vulnerable by economic, social and environmental conditions. Since 1993, IBD Lab has approved over USD 2 billion in projects deployed across 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

About Endeavor
Endeavor is the world's leading community of high-impact entrepreneurs and was founded in 1997. Endeavor is a global organisation that promotes economic, social and cultural transformation by selecting, supporting and investing in the growth of the world's best entrepreneurs and their scaleups. Today, the Endeavor network spans over 40 countries and supports over 2,300 entrepreneurs, whose companies generate total revenue of over USD 42 billion, as well as creating over 3.4 million jobs and, by 2021, raising over USD 12.3 billion in capital. Its unique model of putting the entrepreneur and its trusted network first provides a platform for entrepreneurs to dream big, scale up and reinvest their experience as mentors in the next generation of entrepreneurs.