Medellín Revives Smart Capital After Six-Year Hiatus to Link Regional Venture Capital

Medellín will host the return of Smart Capital on October 7 and 8, 2026, the venture capital forum’s first edition in six years. The event is organized by the Medellín district government, Ruta N and the Cámara de Comercio de Medellín (Medellín Chamber of Commerce), in alliance with ANDI del Futuro, Starter and ACI Medellín, the Agencia de Cooperación e Inversión de Medellín y el Área Metropolitana (Cooperation and Investment Agency of Medellín and its Metropolitan Area). Organizers describe the goal as bringing together national and international investors and business leaders to examine shifts in the venture capital market and to connect funds, companies and financing opportunities across Latin America.

ANDI del Futuro is the entrepreneurship and acceleration arm of the National Business Association of Colombia (ANDI). Organizers did not further identify Starter, the sixth named alliance partner.

The forum’s return coincides with a rebound in the city’s venture funding: startups based in Medellín have drawn $216 million USD in investment so far in 2026, according to organizers. The city ranks first in Latin America for startup density, with 10.9 companies per 100,000 residents, ahead of Bogotá, Santiago, São Paulo and Buenos Aires, according to StartupBlink’s Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2026. “Our ecosystem has recorded 41 percent growth over the past two years, placing us at number 162 among more than 1,100 cities analyzed,” said María Fernanda Galeano Rojo, Medellín’s secretary of economic development, when the ranking was published in May.

Smart Capital’s agenda covers changes in the venture capital market, new scenarios for risk capital, liquidity alternatives and the role of public-private co-investment. Attendees are expected to include family offices, corporate investors, and representatives of development banks and the public sector. The event will also set aside space for direct meetings between 20 investment funds and 35 startups, matched according to each fund’s investment thesis, stage focus and growth criteria.

Confirmed speakers include representatives of the Latin American Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LAVCA); SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO: 9984; OTC: SFTBY); Bancóldex, Colombia’s state foreign-trade bank; Capria Ventures; L40; Confrapar; Alaya Capital; Fondo de Fondos, a Mexican fund-of-funds platform; Chile’s Corporación de Fomento de la Producción (Production Development Corporation), known as Corfo; and Trefilia Capital, a Monterrey-based family office, among others.

Smart Capital operates under Medellín Venture Capital, the Ruta N-led strategy to mobilize capital toward the city’s technology-based businesses. Under that strategy, Ruta N and Bancóldex have structured a fund-of-funds partnership that has unlocked $40 million USD, with capital already committed to Simma Capital and three additional funds — JEC Capital Group, Winter Kapital and Linku Ventures — in the final stages of legal and tax structuring. Ruta N also reports having trained more than 150 investors through the initiative, including 94 angel investors, 39 family offices and 17 corporate entities.

The gathering’s last edition convened in Medellín in March 2020, drawing commitments toward $144 billion COP in projected financing across nearly 600 meetings between entrepreneurs and investors, according to Forbes Colombia — weeks before pandemic-related restrictions halted in-person business events across the country.

Active investors interested in attending Smart Capital can register at rutanmedellin.org.

Headline photo: Attendees work between sessions at a Ruta N event in Medellín. (Photo courtesy Ruta N)