About GEN in Ecuador

 

The Global Entrepreneurship Network began operating in Ecuador in 2009 when it partnered with Fundación Emprender to organize the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) campaign across the country. GEW Coordinator Violeta Moran succesfully coordinated, nation-wide grassroots engagement catalyzed many national entrepreneurship stakeholders to work more closely together.  

GEW campaigns in Ecuador led to more collaboration among entrepreneurship support organizations from across sectors like the Manabi Province government, Manabi's Escuela Superior Politécnica (ESPAM), the i3lab Centre for Entrepreneurship and innovation at ESPOL in Guayaquil, and Prendho, the business incubator center of the Public Technological University of Loja. GEW over the years has sought to reduce cultural barriers, reach new audiences across several cities, and expand the number of individuals who consider entrepreneurship as a viable career path at some point in their lives.  

In 2019, local entrepreneur Andrés Vásconez launched the first Startup Huddle Quito chapter, offering founders a peer-to-peer platform to share challenges, gain feedback, and build connections as part of a global network.  Another chapter, in the city of Manta, is launching in 2026, under the leadership of Violeta Moran.  
 
In 2018, GEN further developed its engagement in the entrepreneurship ecosystems through a partnership with the Alianza para el Emprendimiento y la Innovación (AEI) to advance new initiatives that promote entrepreneurship nationwide, under the leadership of then AEI President Camilo Pinzon. AEI's national network includes more than 140 member organizations from the public, private, academic and international cooperation sectors. AEI represented GEN in many programs in Ecuador and GEN supported AEI’s work to identify barriers, needs, and opportunities. 

For example, on the policy front, the AEI-GEN partnership helped shape Ecuador’s first Entrepreneurship and Innovation Law – an effort coordinated by AEI’s Vice President Natalia Almeida involving diverse stakeholders across public sector institutions, private actors, and civil society.  Drawing on global policy insights from the GEN Policy community, AEI ensured that international best practices were carefully adapted to Ecuador’s institutional context, contributing to the eventual adoption of the landmark Organic Law on Entrepreneurship and Innovation. With this track record in shaping policy, GEN Ecuador representatives have shared their experience in international policy dialogues, including GEN’s annual Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC).  

In 2020, GEN Policy lent its Policy Hack methodology to the International Symposium on “Bioeconomy Pathways in Ecuador” to the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), in partnership with AEI as local implementing partner. 

GEN Global Vice President, Cristina A. Fernandez has maintained a close relationship with the ecosystem with visits to its program partners in Quito and Manta.  Mrs. Fernandez also served on the AEI jury for the selection of the annual Ei entrepreneurship and innovation Awards along with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Country Specialist and key local stakeholders, with the Awards Ceremony aligned annually with Global Entrepreneurship Week celebrations.   

AEI and GEN have also worked more widely in strengthening Latin America’s innovation ecosystem through their joint contributions to the Advisory Board of GEIAL – the Latin American Group of Smart Ecosystems.   To date, six cities from Ecuador have joined this regional iniatitive to benchmark their ecosystems and generate evidence-based initiatives: Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Loja, Riobamba, and Ibarra. 

In terms of founder engagement, it is important to highlight that Ecuador has had three Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) startups in the global top 100 so far: Astralintu Space Technologies (2024), MIKHUNA TRADE (2020), and Waykana (2022, 2019). Ecuadorian diaspora entrepreneurs have also been featured in the top 100 globally through Storybook (2024).

In 2024, the Ecuadorian Private Equity Association (ECUACAP) joined GEN’s Global Business Angel Network (GBAN) to form the GEN Invest LatAm Council, through its members and leadership, namely Justin Schwartz of IMPAQTO CAPITAL, and Camilo Pinzon of Startups & Ventures. 

In 2026, GEN, in partnership with IDB Lab, is co-hosting IDB’s flagship Global Entrepreneurship and Technology (GET) Forum in Quito.  

Through its  Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) and the GEC+ series, GEN continues to engage delegations from Ecuador that includes actors across multiple sectors in Ecuador, including Daniela Peralvo from IMPAQTO–Ecuador's first B Corporation, Veronica Juna from ConQuito - the Economic Promotion Agency of the Municipality of the Metropolitan District of Quito, and Camilo Pinzon, Member of the Ecuadorian Private Equity Association (ECUACAP).