The Seedstars Acceleration Program ran from January to May 2022, with the objective to foster innovation, productivity and competitiveness of SMEs in Latin America. The accelerator aims to promote business ideas that have a positive impact on the region.

The program set out to accelerate and replicate promising technological solutions identified in other Latin American countries, applying the same viable solutions to other areas in the region. The participating entrepreneurs were able to get access to a network of investors and mentors, which helped to strengthen their ventures, as well as create new strategic alliances.

During the program, the entrepreneurs received 15 workshops, 52 mentorships and more than 20 meetings with investors. Find below some of the milestones achieved by the startups:

• Doubled their sales compared to 2021 to 2022
• Increased clients by 25%
• Creation of a growth area within the company
• Opened new markets in Peru and Mexico
• Acquired new skills on the Lean Startup method
• Ran scalable experiments within the companies

"It was amazing to work so closely with these four companies. We were able to customize the program in such a way that each of the startups managed to grow significantly in the last four months. Each of them had a North Star Metric, which helped us to quantitatively measure growth throughout the program. I believe it is important to continue supporting these financial inclusion initiatives in Latin America, focused on both consumers and SMEs in the region. Thank you very much to the CAF for allowing us to carry out and lead this program," shared Paulina López Zibara, Program Manager at Seedstars.

The Financial Inclusion Lab by the Development Bank of LATAM received 190 applications, where 56 startups were selected for evaluation. Twenty startups were chosen to make a business pitch in front of CAF's network of allies and eight of them were chosen to participate in two different programs. The four startups that participated in the Seedstars acceleration program were the following:

• Charly.io: (Chile) is a B2B and B2G startup that offers a digital platform for governments, incubators/accelerators and universities to run innovation programs in SaaS mode.
• Arami: (Paraguay) was created as a spin-off of Fundación Paraguaya. It offers loans to microentrepreneurs and vulnerable communities, using digital channels.
• ERPyme: (Chile) is a B2B startup that offers ERP software for SMEs, which is offered in SaaS mode with a freemium business model
• MiFinanzas: (Uruguay) is a B2B startup that offers loans for SMEs through digital channels

Book an appointment with the startups on the following link: https://seedsta.rs/3PH0v0a.

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ABOUT SEEDSTARS

"They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds." - Mexican proverb

Seedstars is a Swiss-based private company with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. The group’s activities cover over 90 emerging ecosystems through a variety of initiatives such as the FTxSDG Challenge, previously known as the Seedstars World Competition, which is the largest entrepreneurship competition in emerging markets; Seedstars Programs that are designed to support entrepreneurs in varying stages of growth via training, education, mentoring, and access to resources; and Seedstars International, a global venture capital fund for seed stage startups. For more information, visit www.seedstars.com.

CONTACTS

Program

Paulina López Zibara

Program Manager

[email protected]

Media

Michaela Villaroman

Media Relations

[email protected]