The road to the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) Global Finals is well underway. This year’s edition of EWC is particularly exciting, with national finals taking place during Global Entrepreneurship Week for the very first time. More than 20 national finals and EWC events took place in November, recognizing the talent of founders solving the world’s most pressing issues and showcasing the hope, innovation and solution-driven mindsets required for economies to recover and grow.
Latin America and the Caribbean hosted the largest number of national finals in November: Chile (led by CORFO), Costa Rica (Parque Tec), Venezuela (IESA), Mexico (Incmty), Argentina (GEN Argentina) and Paraguay (Innova & GEN Paraguay) all selected their EWC national champions. The Caribbean (GEN Caribbean) also organized a vibrant regional competition and GEW celebration.
Latin America was the fastest growing region in the world in terms of venture funding in 2021. According to the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2022, “an estimated $19.5 billion was invested in the region, more than triple the prior year’s already record-setting levels, and there were 300% more exits over $50 million in 2021 than in 2020. Fintech, transportation and logistics, and e-commerce are largely driving this growth.”
I had the honour of participating at the EWC Mexico Finals which took place as part of the largest entrepreneurship conference in Latin America - the Incmty Festival in Monterrey, which this year celebrated its 10th anniversary. This edition reached more than 100,000 Incmty community members, and the event was packed with events, master classes, book launches and awards focused on four areas: life and well-being, tech and digital, business tools, founders and investors.
Most of the startups and businesses participating had a purpose beyond profit. Most of the entrepreneurs from the region are focused on environmental and social impact initiatives, and there was also a whole pitch section dedicated to women entrepreneurs, showing a commitment to inclusiveness and innovation that I believe is unique. Indeed, the energy of the ecosystem leaders, entrepreneurs and investors present, all working towards the strengthening of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Latin America, was truly electrifying.
The Incmty team is clear that a multi-stakeholder approach where entrepreneurs, academic institutions, investors, government, and corporates work together with a positive mindset of change is key to building an innovation-driven and social impact-focused entrepreneurial ecosystem. This enables all stakeholders to learn from their successes and failures and to come together as a single entrepreneurship enabling community.
In other parts of the world, we also saw EWC competitions led by investors and angel networks including in Sri Lanka (Lankan Angels), Montenegro (Montenegrin Business Angels Network), Yemen (National Microfinance Foundation), or accelerators led by non-profits such in Turkey (Habitat, GEN Turkey), Botswana (PULSE), Senegal (Jokkolabs), Nepal (Nepalese Young Entrepreneur’s Forum), Niger (GEN Niger), Syria (UNDP), Uganda (Geuka Africa), and private accelerators within academia such in Pakistan (Innovation District 92) and Bulgaria (Sofia University).
In some cases, we also had public-private alliances organizing EWC competitions, as was the case in Lesotho (Vodacom Lesotho and GEN Lesotho), Libya (GEN Libya), Indonesia (StartupHax and ASEAN Youth Organization), and Jordan (Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship and Zain).
Finally, we had the great story of AINTECH, an EWC 2021 Global Finalist from Chile, participating at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. “At AINTECH, we're ending the year on a positive note. We closed a USD 8.5 million seed round, a major investment which will allow us to expand to the North American markets to further develop our technologies. We were also invited to COP 27 where we had the opportunity to discuss and share how our nanotechnology is contributing to sustainability by radically optimizing materials and natural resources," said Tomás Houdely Saieg, Aintech’s founder and CEO.
The Entrepreneurship World Cup Global Finals will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in March 2023. Stay tuned for news and updates.