Latin America takes over Silicon Valley

By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la

Last September a couple of events with heavy Latin American presence took over Silicon Valley to introduce some of it best start-ups and show some of the increasing entrepreneurial culture in the region. As we have mentioned before in this blog, Latin America has been gaining recognition as a fertile ecosystem for innovation, entrepreneurs and investors.

NXTP Labs, the most important incubator for early stage start-ups in Argentina, and 21212, it’s
peer in Brazil, organized the event ‘LatAm Invasion to Silicon Valley’ where they presented 19 start-ups (12 from Argentina, five from Brazil, one from Colombia and one from Ecuador) to an audience of more than 200 investors, entrepreneurs and press at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View, CA (USA).

Other LatAm accelerators that have presented their Demo Day’s in the Valley are Startup Chile, a program created by the Chilean Government to attract world-class early stage entrepreneurs to start their businesses in Chile, and MexicanVC, the Mexican seed-stage incubator recently acquired by 500 Startups. A group of 21 Start-Up Chile startups traveled to San Francisco this past September to Demo for US investors, and meetup after the pitch session. On the other hand, Mexican VC had their first batch of ‘graduates’ at their Demo Day in San Francisco last March, where eight companies presented their projects in a semi private event.

‘LatAm Invasion to Silicon Valley’ was the perfect predecessor for the vibrant presence of Latin American start-ups in TechCrunch Disrupt 2012, one of the most popular entrepreneurship events in San Francisco, which took place from September 8 through 12.

The event displayed more than 40 start-ups among the Mexican, Argentine, Chilean and Brazilian pavilions, something never seen before. Investors and entrepreneurs alike are still
searching for the right way to invest or receive investment. They have many doubts about the
Latin American market, which is clearly different from the United States, and also have many doubts about what would be the best terms and conditions for this matter.

Also important to note was the participation of the brazilian start-up Queremos! in the Battlefield, one of the most important sections of TC Disrupt. Queremos! is a fanfunding platform for concerts and live events and during their pitch, they announced their first concert ever in the United States.

The opportunity to display the talent of these Technolatinas, as Buenos Aires entrepreneur Ignacio Peña recently coined the term, will continue to bring attention on the region and will gradually bring certainty to all the players within the ecosystem. Entrepreneurship is becoming a real option for young people and the opportunity to create value and economic growth in their countries.