The Emprende tu Mente Foundation (EtM) held the EtMday 2023 on November 16th and 17th in Ciudad de Santiago, Chile. This event is the most significant gathering in Latin America for innovation, entrepreneurship and investment. The 2023 edition had various activities to celebrate and empower entrepreneurship, including panels with keynotes, elevator pitches, 1-on-1 mentoring, networking, a VC-only zone and live investment raising.
In the event, the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator team, represented by Sebastian González, Hispam Director Corporate Venturing & Partnerships Wayra – Telefonica Open Innovation, made the most of the occasion to launch the project in Chile, hand in hand with the organisers – the EtM Foundation.
“This international meeting is a unique opportunity to present the value proposition of EU-LAC Digital Accelerator to the Chilean ecosystem, both at the corporate world level, as well as to the local startup community. In Chile, a significant number of corporates are developin and looking for innovative solutions hand in hand with startups, so the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator represents a great opportunity to access EU entrepreneurs who want to develop business in Latin America and the Caribbean”, stated González.
During the first day of the event, González presented the project to public and private sector representatives of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Latin America and the Caribbean. The objective was to promote open innovation to address industry challenges and seize new opportunities such as those offered by EU-LAC Digital Accelerator. Currently, the initiative is collecting Smart Production challenges from corporates that will later be solved by innovative startups and SMEs. The EU-LAC partnerships that will emerge during the matching process will subsequently be able to apply for acceleration services.
In the panel, González engaged in a very interesting dialogue with Vitor Mascarenhas, Country Manager for Brazil at EDP Ventures, who shared his experience in open innovation, entrepreneurship and investment with innovative startups in Europe and Latin America, showing the potential of developing partnerships between both continents.
Thanks to the event, our team in Chile shared the opportunities we offer to entrepreneurs, startups, corporates, investors and business organisations from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean in this solid innovation ecosystem. Additionally, we were able to raise awareness of the programme with important companies and institutions that participated in the event, including BCI, SQM, Caja los Andes, Transbank, Google, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Mastercard, Corfo, SKY, EY, Samsung, Clínica Alemana, Empresas Carozzi, among others. All the fruitful conversations and good results of the meeting will be put into practice in our EU-LAC Digital Accelerator, driving digital transformation through cross-regional open innovation.