[New Businesses] Latin American start-ups to look out in 2013 (via @TheNextWeb)

We feel honoured to see that North American websites are relaying on the technological developments and innovations made by Latin American start-ups.  We have previously stated in our blog that LatAm still holds hope for many sectors, for many years to come.

We still believe that Latin America is a wonderful platform to create new ventures, an amazing growing market with enormous potential, and a warm and welcoming business people.  You just have to find the right ones.

Let us enjoy this ‘top 10’ of future start-ups, we will include new ones in the weeks to come.  -FTR

 

Via @TheNextWeb

As a new year begins, here comes the time to refresh our list of the most promising Latin American startups. It’s worth noting that this isn’t about who is going to IPO next, as we decided to limit ourselves to somewhat early stage names.

While they are still in their first years of existence, most of them have graduated from one of the region’s leading accelerators, which helped them get funding from international investors to finance their growth.

Check out our list of 10 startups to look out for below, in alphabetical order:

Agent Piggy

Agent Piggy is a financial education platform for kids, which hopes to teach them how to manage a budget in an entertaining way. Already available in Spanish and English, it launched its Portuguese version at TNW Conference Latin America in Brazil last August.

Earlier this year, it was also the winner of TNW Startup Awards’ Chilean edition. It has participated in acceleration programs at Founder Institute,Start-Up Chile and Wayra, which selected it as one of the companies it introduced to international investors during its Global Demo Day in Miami last month.

Bandtastic

Bandtastic is a crowdfunding platform for concerts and digital tickets. In practical terms, people pick a band they would like to see live and they all bring it together, creating opportunities to finance music shows that wouldn’t have happened with more traditional models.

It was the winner of TNW Startup Awards Mexico last summer. The startup received funding from Investomex, which co-invested alongside Wayra and Startup Labs.

Runner-up: 21212 alum Queremos, which has been developing a similar model in Brazil and recently expanded into the US under the brandWeDemand.

Cinepapaya

‘Latin American Fandango’ Cinepapayafocuses on selling movie tickets, and already boasts a presence in Peru, Colombia and Chile. More importantly, it has secured funding from Dave McClure’s 500 Startups to finance its regional expansion.

Cinepapaya’s team participated in TNW Conference’s Startup Battle in São Paulo last August, and made it to second place. It also took part in Start-Up Chile, and is one of the most promising alumni of Wayra Peru (see our previous article about the program and its impact on the Peruvian tech scene.)

ComparaOnline

Service comparison startupComparaOnline was the first Chilean startup to receive investment from the Latin American VC firm Kaszek Ventures last May. In total, it has raised over US$5 million so far.

A few weeks ago, we also learned that ComparaOnline’s CEO Sebastian Valin would be joining the Endeavor Network. As you may know, Endeavor’s focus is to foster growth by supporting high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging countries, and the fact that it its global selection panel selected ComparaOnline confirms that the company is definitely a name to watch in 2013.

Cumplo

We have recently labelled Chilean startupCumplo as “one of the most groundbreaking startups in Latin America.” Its purpose?Democratizing finance through P2P lending. By mid-December 2012, over $1 million had been distributed via its platform.

While its model went under administrative scrutiny, it has the right team to overcome these hurdles; its co-founders Nicolas Shea is the founder of Start-Up Chile, of which Boudeguer was the executive director before he left to create Cumplo.

Runner-up: Lenddo, which currently operates in the Philippines and Colombia, and grants loans based on community trust.

Descomplica

Brazilian e-learning startupDescomplica has recentlyclosed an investment roundfrom Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Brazil-focused Valor Capital Group and EL Area, 500 Startups, and Palo Alto-based Social+Capital Partnership.

In other words, it is well placed to surf on the online education boom in Latin America, and more specifically in Brazil, where it helps students prepare for major entrance examinations.

Runner-up: Veduca, which brings MOOCs from leading US universities to Brazil with Portuguese subtitles, and recently closed a round led by Mountain do Brasil, with participation from 500 Startups.

Ideame

Ideame is Latin America’s Kickstarter, and added many twists to the original crowdfunding model to make sure it could succeed in its home region. For instance, it has recently introduced a new funding method which is similar to Indiegogo’s Flexible Funding option, in which projects can get access to contributions even if they don’t reach 100% of their original goal.

As we reported, Ideame participated in NXTP Labs’ acceleration program, and won TNW Startup Awards Argentina. It has recently acquired its Brazilian counterpart Movere to boost its growth in that country.

Pagpop

Pagpop is the Brazilian version of Square, and one of the most successful startups to have come out of Rio de Janeiro and New York-based accelerator 21212.

Earlier this year, its mobile payment solution attracted the attention of Intel Capital, which selected Pagpop as one of the ten companies in which it is investing a total of $40 million.

Workana

Workana is an online marketplace for freelancers, with headquarters in Argentina and a focus on Latin America. It is currently available in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

An alumnus from NXTP Labs, it won TNW Conference Latin America’s Startup Battle. It then went on to raise a $500k round of investment led by DMGT‘s employment division, Evenbase,

Runner-up: GetNinjas, which offers a somewhat similar platform in Brazil, where it won the local edition of TNW Startup Awards in 2012.

Wormhole IT

Wormhole IT is an Argentine web conference platform that has recently been selected to join the Endeavor Network. During TNW Conference Latin America, it announced that it had partnered with phone operatorVivo to offer its solutions to more than one million SMBs in Brazil.

As we explained at the time, “the platform can be used for web meetingsà la Skype, but also for training sessions and events. One of its key characteristics is its simple interface, which doesn’t require any download and is compatible with slow Internet connections.”

Image credit: Thinkstock

http://thenextweb.com/la/2013/01/02/10-latin-american-startups-to-look-out-for-in-2013/

Dr. Latin America or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the International Development

(Lessons Learned on Latin America’s technology and innovation investments)

Stanley Kubrick’s classic film feature title (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1964), a masterclass of cynicism and irony on the nuclear bomb race, could be used as an analysis for the current reaction towards new markets, in particular, Latin America.

International Business Development has become almost a limerick in current corporate meetings. This sort of strange riddle conjures up the idea of deploying (all or part of) the company’s businesses in new and undiscovered lands. This, by way of international trade, foreign direct investments, or special structure of capital in the newfound lands.

For North American ventures, a European “invasion” could be considered as an option, but under the current issues of recurring economic crisis in the euro zone, the Old World has lingered in a particular ellipsis…. European investments still consider investing in other neighboring countries as well as the Eastern European Nations, of which some could still hold a certain margin of growth and development. The other option -the next option- is Latin America.

To relive the experiences of Columbus in a fabulous odyssey is what many small (and not so small) companies dream of. Under the spell of globalization, new countries came to rise –for different reasons- and now we are living the rebranding of Latin America as an investment haven under the North American and European current weather.

Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina (to name just a few) comprise a very important market that has caught the attention of many companies, more precisely those in the technology and innovation arena.

These newfoundlands have few technological applications to consume, but enormous amounts of information, a capacity for spending and a sustained and growing middle class that considers new technologies as a basic means of personal and professional development. See the recent explosion of smartphones in the region, the unceased growth of internet and hi-speed connections. Latin America is aware, at the same time, of all the latest devices and applications available elsewhere, but not locally (from all things Apple, other Smartphones, Netflix et al, Spotify, Rdio et al.). Local consumers therefore know all of these products, but cannot access them directly. They are simply waiting for them.

That is why it is logical that many North American and European companies have decided to launch international campaigns in Latin America, with uneven results. The primary reason is the way the approaches have been designed, since many of them lack the know-how when attempting to integrate Latin American markets. It is incorrect to invest in Latin America with the eyes and vision of a European context and European rules. Doing business in Latin America implies a concrete prior knowledge of the commercial arena, players, competitors, politics, history, social implication, as well as managerial implications. It might sound funny, but it requires a history lesson. European businessmen know that in order to do business in China, major cultural adaptations and numerous types of concessions must be made.

Recent news in the region might be –prima facie- less encouraging to investors, as some circumstances in the traditional Latin American environment might be seen as a menace to investments and their necessary stability. Nevertheless, not all nations, nor all markets in Latin America, are reacting in the same way. Each nation deserves a particular treatment for investments, for capital structure and for any strategy for future investments.

As a part of many other prior requirements to consider before embarking in the big international leap to any Latin American market, some situations can be considered as crucial. Firstly, it is necessary to previously obtain the most accurate data on the market, analyzing potential competition, with the help of trustworthy sources. Secondly, to understand the reality of the timing, to know how to explain the real scope of the potential business in a cultural language that will be clear for the market needs, including all other cultural innuendos. And finally, to be aware of the differences that each country possesses in the process of developing business. In sum, before beginning the adventure, lower your guard and accept help. It’s all about how to learn to stop worrying and to love the international development.

Some sectors are still a priority for the Latin American markets: Technologies and innovations in general, the markets surrounding smartphones and the revamping of traditional sectors such as the music, book and film industries. It is still early to act in these markets, as the growth, luckily, is still ahead.

El futuro de Netflix en Latinoamérica

El pasado 5 de Julio 2011, Jessie Becker, vicepresidente de Marketing de Netflix anunció el lanzamiento del servicio de transmisión de programas de TV y películas en 43 países de Latinoamérica y el Caribe.

El mercado latinoamericano comporta alrededor de 600 millones de usuarios, un mercado que duplica el tamaño del de los Estados Unidos de América, lo cual marcará una línea de largada suficientemente optimista.  Sumado a la explosión de las economías locales en la región, tanto el Brasil, México y Argentina poseen también mercados crecientes y un importante desarrollo de la banda ancha y de servicios de comunicaciones electrónicas (ver, al respecto, nuestra nota sobre Brasil).

Así, resulta interesante, como puede advertirse en el siguiente cuadro, que en numerosos países de la región, la tasa de penetración de Internet con banda ancha (broadband) es a veces mayor que en el caso de televisión por suscripción (Pay TV).

Teniendo en cuenta estos datos, contrariamente a que sucede en los Estados Unidos de América o el Canadá, donde el servicio de transmisión de video (streaming) opera como un complemento de la televisión por suscripción, en el caso de América Latina, Netflix podría razonablemente transformarse en un servicio primario de servicio de video. Conforme a un reciente informe de Goldman Sachs, se constata en primer lugar el bajo nivel de competitividad de servicios de televisión por suscripción. Por otra parte, existe una penetración promedio del 25% de la TV paga, lo cual implica –según el informe- que potencialmente usuarios podrían volcarse directamente a suscribirse a Netflix como un servicio exclusivo y no complementario.

Un inconveniente que se ha advertido es la limitación de ancho de banda promedio en Latinoamérica, que es de 3.2Mbps, mucho menor a la cifra de 5-6 Mbps de los Estados Unidos de América, lo cual impediría brindar servicios de video en HD en pantalla completa.

El siguiente cuadro, realizado a partir de la información brindada por Dan Rayburn, permite tener una visión general de la situación en la región.

El siguiente paso en la táctica de la empresa será obtener un reconocimiento creciente en la región, donde la marca es menos conocida aún.

Es por eso que la marca necesitará adaptar ligeramente los contenidos para la región. Si bien en Latinoamérica el mercado dominante en cine y TV está dominado por el mercado Norteamericano, la empresa deberá incluir también contenidos locales.  En esta línea, Televisa (México) ha firmado un acuerdo con Netflix para distribuir telenovelas y otros contenidos hasta 3,000 horas por año de la programación del multimedios.

Fuentes y más información:

http://www.portada-online.com/article.aspx?aid=8357

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/07/cbs-and-netflix-extend-relationship-to-canada-and-latin-america.html

http://toutanumerik.blogspot.com/2011/07/amerique-latine-et-centrale-netflix.html

http://gigaom.com/video/netflix-latin-america-expansion/

http://gigaom.com/video/netflix-cable-networks/

http://gigaom.com/video/netflix-cable-latin-america/

http://blog.netflix.com/2011/07/netflix-is-coming-to-latin-america.html

Why will Latin America become the next Cloud heaven

The constant economic growth in Latin America will prove a safe bet for investments in new technologies.  Cloud computing will also allow Latin America to turn  infrastructure deficit into profits through the storing and connectivity possibilities that the cloud offers.

For the last few months, we have been hearing about a new Internet bubble, with sky-scraping investments, corporations going public and IPO’s being filed (Netflix, LinkedIn, Zynga,…).  We have also witnessed the appearance of innovations, such as cloud computing, revealing quite a few technical (and legal, of course) challenges in the near future.

Innovation, through technology as well as marketing, is driving the market into a new rhythm.  Cloud computing will become a booster for many industries, as costs will be reduced and most services, applications and server controls will be stored and operated elsewhere.  The use of this technology allows running businesses to migrate their permanent IT environment into the cloud, which brings immediate profit and an outstanding competitiveness.

Connectivity is the second decisive factor in this equation.  Since 2000, broadband technology has become faster and cheaper in most countries.  This concept has boosted many innovation technologies investments, as investments can be reduced, operations can be finalized in a few months and a company can be running very quickly using a very flexible platform.

Latin America shows a particular horizon in the innovation arena.  Broadband penetration is growing non-stop (and getting cheaper every month), and the need for new commercial technology developments, such as cloud computing, has proven to be an excellent alternative for new business.

The fact that countries have less development in Internet infrastructure will in fact be an advantage for cloud computing expansion.  Brazil has benefited from these new technology alternatives, growing in the last year as much as during the last two decades.  Some South American countries are growing at a 7-11% rate per year.  We believe that this technological expansion will be all over the Latin American region in just a few months.

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia… These countries are ready to operate in the new business of technology innovation.  The growth of flat-data plans on phones and the boom of smartphones are only showing the tip of the iceberg, as most commercial activities will be supported through broadband, both in phones and fixed lines.

Related Info:

Taking place on the 28th September 2011 in the Braston Hotel, Sao Paulo, the Cloud Computing World Forum Latin America is a Free-to-attend event and will feature all of the key players within the Cloud Computing and SaaS market providing an introduction, discussion and look into the future for the ICT industry.

Google ‘do Brasil’

Recientemente, un articulo de El pais.es advirtió que el gigante Google ha puesto la mira en el Brasil. Google no solo piensa aprovechar la atractiva tasa de inserción del 36,6% sino también multiplicar su presencia en Brasil tanto en el sector de recursos humanos como en el de adquisiciones de empresas locales.

Allí donde paradójicamente Facebook no es rey y el reinado de las redes sociales está controlado por un producto de Google (Okrut), el ex VP para Latinoamérica de Google ha sido reclutado por las huestes de Mark Zuckerberg para intentar generar el mismo entusiasmo en sus filas (Además del Brasil, Facebook aún debe luchar para reclamar el trono de las redes sociales en países como China, Japón y Rusia).

Los planes de la Presidenta Dilma Roussef prevén una furiosa expansión de la banda ancha a todo el país, llevándola por encima del actual 15% de penetración, bajo las consignas del programa “Internet para todos”. Dentro de los objetivos de su plan están llevar el abono mensual de Internet de 120 a 30 reales (Téngase en cuenta que el salario básico en Brasil es de 600 reales).