San Salvador, El Salvador – Fiado App, a startup based on an AI model using non-traditional data to subscribe personal loans, captured first prize at the national finals of the Entrepreneurship World Cup competition held recently in San Salvador, El Salvador.
Roger Jacir, CEO of Fiado App, captured first prize and advances to the next round of the global competition against national winners from 200 countries.
“At Fiado, we want to build a world where anyone can apply for a credit, built their credit history, improve their financial behaviors and have access to a steadily increasing financial wellbeing”, said Jacir.
In preparation for the EWC Global Finals, Fiado will participate in a Bootcamp which features virtual training and mentoring sessions targeted to their company’s current stage and growth trajectory.
As a Global Finalist, Fiado will compete for a share of USD 1 million in cash prizes. The top 100 Global Finalists will receive $100,000 worth of in-kind services and support from service providers such as AWS, Freshworks, Oracle, Hubspot, Stripe and Segment.
Global finalists also gain automatic entry into the GEN Starters Club, an invitation-only community of talented founders from around the world.
In El Salvador the call for the Entrepreneurship World Cup was launched on June 15, and closed registrations on August 14. In this 2022 edition, more than 50 strategic partners of the country's innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem and international partners have joined this effort with 15 national awards valued at more than USD$150,000.
During the registration stage, the Ministry of Economy as a National Organizer worked together with strategic partners to support the entrepreneurs participating in this competition, launching a learning route of entrepreneurship and acceleration for the strengthening of their ventures, preparing them to have a greater opportunity in the competition at an international level.
Fiado emerged victorious from a pool of more than 400 contestants who applied – each receiving access to free virtual training services and up to $25,000 in perks to help them take their venture to the next level.
In recent weeks, the semifinal events of the Entrepreneurship World Cup in El Salvador have been carried out for each category, where the 5 best qualified semifinalists presented their pitch in front of various panels of judges and thus move on to the National Grand Final.
In the national grand final held on September 13, 2021, the representative of El Salvador was selected from among the six finalists, made up of the first two places in each category.
Other finalists at EWC El Salvador included:
- Play-re-play, a platform that allows any parent who has items that their children have stopped using and are in good condition to sell them online.
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Tareyas Agrotech, Digital platform that eliminates the intermediation of the marketing process of agricultural products, providing efficient logistics for farmers and restaurants, improving income for the former and making the supply profitable for the latter.
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Jobbi, an HR Tech platform that enables freelancer collaboration to manage projects and then connect with all the right talent to execute it.
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Topia, A mobile application for access control in a secure way in residential and mass events, which has multiple tools to improve social coexistence among residents or participants of events.
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Dloop, a platform that seeks to fight against food waste with a sustainability approach, in which businesses can sell their surplus food daily, recovering their costs and reaching new customers.
Judges for the competition were:
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Rodrigo Tona, CEO of Ternova Group
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Rodrigo Romera, Country Manager de Nestlé
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Jorge Arriaza, Executive Director of the Salvadoran Association of Industrialists
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Dionisio Machuca, Legal VP of Banco Agrícola (Bancolombia)
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Alfredo Escalón, CEO de Fisherman Wealth Management
The EWC El Salvador’s National Finals were organized by the Ministry of Economy, and sponsored by Grupo Ternova. With the participation as guests of honor: the Director for El Salvador at the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, the President of the Development Bank of El Salvador, the President of the National Commission for Micro and Small Enterprises, The Executive Director of the National Records Center, representatives of the Superintendence of the Financial System and the 50 partners of the country's innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
During the event, Maria Luisa Hayem, Minister of Economy announced that, for the first time in this competition, a "Special Program for the 6 Finalist of the Entrepreneurship World Cup for El Salvador" is made available, through which, the 6 finalists will be able to receive technical accompaniment and non-refundable co-financing by the Ministry of Economy, to carry out a project that enhances their venture. The amounts available for non-refundable co-financing are:
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Up to $15,000 for each idea stage finalist
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Up to $30,000 for each early stage finalist
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Up to $100,000 for each growth stage finalist
Since launching in 2019, the competition has attracted 400,000 registrations from 200 countries and connected founders with over US$3M in cash prizes and another US$256M worth of perks and free support and services.
Global Finalists will face off against one another in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in March 2023.
EWC is an initiative led by the Global Entrepreneurship Network and Monsha’at, with support from a collection of national and global partners including One Valley, The Global Education and Leadership Foundation (tGELF), Entrepreneurs’ Organization, KAUST and Startup Genome.
