Santander Innovation Incubator Launched In Bucaramanga To Promote Entrepreneurship

Yesterday, the Bucaramanga Chamber of Commerce (CCB), Colombian petroleum giant Ecopetrol and national small business incubator INNpulsa Colombia inaugurated S-Innova, an entrepreneurship and innovation support center belonging to the CEmprende network, a national initiative that seeks to facilitate the connection between academia, private enterprise, the state and society to strengthen and stimulate the development of entrepreneurship and innovation in the country.

The new space, located at Calle 48 # 28-40 in Bucaramanga aims to provide entrepreneurs access to incubation, acceleration and internationalization programs, specialized laboratories, prototyping, open innovation, technology transfer, high-level activities impact with partners, financing and coworking spaces.

“CEmprende is an initiative in which we integrate the public sector, the private sector and the academy around a project to strengthen the business fabric of Santander. In this space we will have a concentrated offer of services in which institutions such as the Cooperative University of Colombia, the Government of Santander, Imebu, of course, Ecopetrol, Innpulsa and the Bucaramanga Chamber of Commerce will be present,” said Juan Camilo Beltrán Domínguez, president of the Bucaramanga Chamber of Commerce.

Institutional offer for entrepreneurs

The Bucaramanga Chamber of Commerce will offer its business strengthening and internationalization programs such as Accelera Región, Red de Inversionistas Ángeles (Angel Investor Network), Factories of Productivity, Global Plan Santander, among others seeking to facilitate business acceleration processes to increase the competitiveness of companies, strengthening them on productivity, managerial skills, strategy and corporate governance issues.

Also participating with the support of the CCB, the OTRI (Technology Transfer office of the East), an important actor in the Science, Technology and Innovation ecosystem that seeks to promote technology transfer at a national and international level through protection, commercialization capacities, negotiation and transfer of research results, generating benefits that contribute to economic growth and competitiveness in the region.

Ecopetrol, through the Center for Innovation and Technology – ICP, will develop products and applications for the energy transition, based on technological convergence and based on nanotechnology and advanced petrochemicals. It will also run its Innovate open innovation contest, which in its six years of history has delivered more than 1,000 million pesos of seed capital for the construction of prototypes and the demonstration of solution concepts to technological and social challenges launched by the company.

The Tecnoparque Nodo Bucaramanga, SENA’s technological innovation program that acts as an accelerator for the development of R & D & I projects, will provide services related to adaptation and technology transfer, technical advice in project development, access to physical and technological infrastructure specialized laboratories, among others.

The Cooperative University of Colombia participates with a key role in the training and development of R + D + I capacities with its strategic unit dedicated to the management of competitive and sustainable entrepreneurship projects, articulated through tools to access resources from national and international co-financing and tax benefits.

The Municipal Institute of Employment and Business Development of Bucaramanga IMEBU, is linked as an ecosystem actor, jointly executing the Coworking Labs program with the Bucaramanga Chamber of Commerce, which seeks the incubation and acceleration of companies with an emphasis on innovation, science and technology, with collaborative work spaces and specialized technical training.

The Government of Santander will provide acceleration programs to strengthen and encourage entrepreneurs in the development and consolidation of their innovation structures; empowering them with tools, methodologies and adapted development paths to exploit their potential and be a catalyst for sustainable growth in the country.

INNpulsa Colombia aims to promote its programs and those of government entities related to entrepreneurship, as well as the promotion of the CEmprende project and the organization of permanent activities to generate relationships in the ecosystem by the entity and its allies.

CEmprende, Bucaramanga headquarters, is a clear example of how articulation and collaborative work make it possible to capitalize efforts and transform them into solutions that contribute to society, the region and the country. The Bucaramanga Chamber of Commerce invites technology-based entrepreneurs to take advantage of the services of this new space that was created to strengthen and promote Santander’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.