The winners were selected from 16 finalists during the LATAM Region Seedstars World competition, which bills itself as the largest seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets. The contenders were selected and named at the Seedstars Summit LATAM in Medellin Colombia November 27th to 29th.

Selected companies:

1. Ribon, Brazil, donation platform for millennials
2. Mynkana, Ecuador, the uber of market research.
3. Mesa, Chile, bringing diners to restaurants at off-peak times
4. Evimed, Uruguay, online education for medical professionals
5. Ruedata, Colombia, data analytics to boost efficiency in bus and truck fleets
6. Afinidata, Guatemala, the smart early childhood tutor
7. Pixdea, Costa Rica, education through VR classroom programs
8. Manzana Verde, Peru, a subscription service for healthy meals
9. Baubap, Mexico, a financial inclusion platform
   

   Colombian Surfing Champion & motivational speaker Freddy Marimón has won multiple gold medals even though he has no legs.

More than just an entrepreneur’s conference, the Seedstars Summit LATAM was an opportunity for all stakeholders involved to network, gain knowledge, and build relationships with investors. For the first time, the event was open to other startups outside of the SSW competition including the Seedstars & Apps.co Expansion Program delegation of 10 Colombian startups in the process of internationalization.

Prior to the main Summit day, 35 participating startups completed an intensive growth Bootcamp at Medellin’s municipal incubator Ruta N, focused on scaling up their businesses, followed by the Investor Forum at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) sponsored by Amazon. The startups had over 150 one-to-one meetings with recognized local and international mentors and investors such as Brazil’s Monashees, Mexico’s Redwood Ventures, Washington DC based Village Capital and others.

November 29 was designated Summit Day, when the startups delivered 3-minute pitches on the main stage in front of more than 350 hand-picked ecosystem builders, corporates, investors, and startup enthusiasts representing some of the most prominent names of tech and entrepreneurship in Latin America. The Summit also featured workshops and speakers from global and regional companies, like Hubspot, Procolombia, Orlando Reyes (Co-Founder at Wisy) and Colombian surfing champion Freddy Marimon.

“I was impressed by the quality and diversity of startups looking for solutions in Latin America, the diversity of the sector was also pleasantly surprising,”—Anna Raptis, founder of Amplifica Capital.

“The Seedstars event in Medellin brought the most important agents for entrepreneurship in Latin America together. It was incredible to see new and old faces forming part of this ecosystem of knowledge and experience.” Said  Rafael Obando from HubspotSponsors included Ruta N, the Swiss Embassy of Colombia, Avianca, Amazon AWS, ISA and the UPB, with the media support of France24, & Entrepreneur .All photos courtesy of Seedstars

By winning the Seedstars Bogotá competition, the company, which offers a digital platform that aims to connects small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with financing, will now head to Lausanne, Switzerland, where it will be matched up against the best of the best from around the world.

“The next competition for Hometuls is the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland in April, where they will compete for up to $1 million in prizes,” Ana Vasquez, a representative for Seedstars told Finance Colombia.

The winner of that competition — which will feature national winners from more than 60 countries — will get $500,000 in an equity investment and there will also be other prizes to honor excellence in typical verticals like fintech, healthtech, and innovation as well as more unique areas described as “fempreneurship” and “time savior.”

Previous winners and notable participants of the global Seedstars competition have included Agrocent from Ghana, eFishery from Indonesia, Acudeen from Philippines, and Ultracasas from Bolivia

“There have been 263 local winners, of which 90% are still alive,” said Vasquez. “There have been several acquisitions from the first years of the competition and most companies have gone on to raise funding. Previous Seedstars World alumni have raised over $120 million collectively, providing employment to more than 2.100 employees worldwide.”

The winners celebrate on stage in Bogotá. (Credit: Seedstars)

In the Colombian competition on September 19, Hometuls took home the top spot by beating out second-place finisher Wenjoy, a fintech, and third-place startup MUVO, an app to share electric bicycles in Bogotá.

Some of the other participants included liquor delivery service Chin Chin, transportation platform Dashfleet, and candidate verification app Globalwork.

The winners were decided by a panel of judges in Bogotá that included Alejandro Gomez Cano of Seedstars, Ana Mora Bowen of Angel Ventures, Sergio Zuniga of Village Capital, Edwin Casallas of Wayra Colombia, Danny Sierra of Vivelab Bogotá, and Sergio Zafra of Seedspace.

Before it heads to Switzerland in 2019, Hometuls will also gather with many of its regional peers in Lima for a Latin American summit in December.

“At the regional summit, there’s not a competitive factor,” Vasquez told Finance Colombia. “However, besides a boot camp and other activities, the finalists have the chance to pitch their products on the main stage in front of an audience of investors, incubators, government representatives, and other stakeholders from the sector.”

Payment platform ePayco, short-term loan provider RapiCredit, and tuition savings facilitator ESCALA Educación are the three Colombian companies that have been chosen to compete in the first ever regional “Village Capital FinTech – Latin America 2017” program.

Along with these finalists, eight other fintech startups from across Latin America were picked out of the nearly 100 companies that applied for the program, which is supported by PayPal, Citibanamex, and BlackRock in addition to Village Capital.

Starting next week in September, they will all come together in the Colombian capital for the first of several multi-day workshops in Bogotá and Mexico City to prove their “investment-readiness,” according to Village Capital.

The top two companies, as judged by their peers at the conclusion of the three-month program, will take home the $75,000 USD in funding from VilCap Investments. Even those that don’t receive an initial investment will benefit from mentorship and business development training.

“Innovation in financial services is crucial in a market like Latin America that faces significant financial inclusion challenges,” said the program coordinators in a statement. They added that the 11 fintech startups chosen “represent a diverse range of business models that bring financial services to underserved groups throughout Latin America.”

With three representatives, Colombia has more startups in the program than every other country except for Mexico, which has four. Chile has two companies participating and Argentina has one.

The following is a full list of the 11 fintech startups participating in Village Capital FinTech: Latin America 2017. (The company descriptions have been provided by the program’s coordinators.)

ePayco (Colombia)
A digital payments gateway that gives merchants the tools they need to commercialize their services and products via social media by providing a friendly tool to link their products to different platforms in a safe and easy way.

ESCALA Educación (Colombia)
A social enterprise that promotes the progress of Colombian families and companies through a long-term savings plan and access to higher education.

RapiCredit (Colombia)
Provides 30-day loans online to the lower and middle class population in Colombia who often succumb to predatory and illegal payday-like loans due to lack of access to formal credit. RapiCredit’s service is 100% online, has no hidden fees, and aims to educate clients.

Pago Rural (Argentina)
A “lend-n-pay” technology platform that allows farmers to access financing to buy seeds, ag-chemicals and fertilizers in a simple, agile and safe way.

Finciero (Chile)
Seeks to eliminate the digital payment barriers for the unbanked in Latin America. Its first massive product is a virtual prepaid card.

Fintual (Chile)
A robot advisor company using computer algorithms to help common people and SMBs to invest their money online.

Bayonet (Mexico)
A reputation system that helps FinTech companies tackle risk management through collective intelligence.

Contalisto (Mexico)
Is the first online platform that offers Mexican taxpayers various services making it faster, easier and friendlier to declare taxes.

Doopla (Mexico)
A P2P lending platform where borrowers can pay back through payroll deductions. Thanks to its operations and risk models Doopla is able to offer lower interest rates that those offered by traditional financial institutions and investors obtain higher returns.

FINV (Mexico)
A factoring platform that integrates financial and social responsibility algorithms to connect SMBs financing needs with corporates’ and individuals’ capital supply.

Mutuo Financiera (Mexico)
SMBs lending platform, focused on structured supply chain finance solutions, powered by machine learning.

(Photo Credit: www.cafecredit.com)

The initiative, “Village Capital FinTech: Latin America 2017,” is primarily a collaboration between Village Capital and PayPal, which will select up to 15 fintech companies to enter a three-month training and capital-raising program. There will be at least three workshops for those selected, including one in Mexico in November, and the two highest-performing startups, as judged by their peers, will receive investments of at least $75,000 USD from VilCap Investments.

New York-based BlackRock and Citibanamex of Mexico will also participate by providing resources and consultation to the included companies chosen from the pool of applicants throughout the region. The program has put a specific focus on entrepreneurs from Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile, requiring applicants to have at least one full-time employee working in one of the four countries.

The application period began in late May and will remain open through June 23. “The Village Capital FinTech: Latin America 2017 invitation is looking for entrepreneurs with personal experience in the development of scalable companies which will democratize the access to financial services for unattended people and small and medium enterprises,” said Village Capital in a statement.

Specifically, Village Capital says it is looking for fintech entrepreneurs who have developed solutions centered around the following objectives:

• Develop user-friendly products and services that align with needs of the underbanked and small and medium-sized business in the Mexican context
• Innovate in credit scoring to enable affordable access to credit
• Reliably authenticate user identity, such as through blockchain, biometrics, behavioral data, and open networks
• Increase financial literacy and provide incentives for cash-centric consumers to adopt traditional and digital financial services
• Improve distribution channel infrastructure, enabling financial institutions to affordably and efficiently serve rural and urban unbanked populations

While the program has operated in Mexico previously, with editions in both 2015 and 2016, and invested in more than 70 early-stage companies overall through this model including the startup ePesos, this is the first edition to stretch throughout Latin America. “We have found excellent fintech entrepreneurs all over Latin America, and we are very enthusiastic about taking our program beyond Mexico for the first time,” said Ross Baird, founder of Village Capital.

The two Village Capital programs in Mexico in 2015 and 2016 programs led to more than $175,000 USD in investments and created nearly 200 jobs, according to Village Capital. “Through our program in Latin America, we are pleased to help to construct a support ecosystem for fintech with social impact,” said Franz Paasche, vice president of corporative affairs at PayPal.