Innovation & Technology in Latin America

Opportunities for international innovation and startup ecosystem policies as a key factor for sustainable development.

Business opportunities in Latin America are interesting and diverse due to a great need for innovation and technology. In the area of digital transformation there are significant opportunities not only for companies, but also for startups. The Latin American market advantages are for example better labor costs, a high backlog demand, world class industries and a dynamic startup ecosystem.  

Several countries in Latin America have highly innovative startups and their startup ecosystems have grown significantly in the past years. One of the reasons for that is that Latin American governments have recognized the importance of supporting entrepreneurship as a vital driver for technological, economic and social transformation in order to pursue job creation, growth and long-term prosperity. 

Although many startup ecosystems have the support of the government, public and private actors like accelerators and incubators, etc. there is still space for improvement, and they could profit from collaborative working models on a national and international level. 

Collaboration to speed-up innovation within industry with the help of the high-tech-startups or to support startups that need a reasonable market size, that only the whole continent or big markets like Europe can offer and collaboration to innovate in order to solve social and environmental challenges in Latin America.

Alliances for sustainable development through Innovation and Technology

An international innovation and startup ecosystem policy for startups, SME and applied research for sustainable development will improve the country’s innovation force and therefore its competitiveness in a sustainable way. Latin American countries should collaborate on a continental level and with other nations that are likeminded in pursuing sustainable development, like Germany. This collaboration should have a long-term focus and could consider areas like:

1.    Develop a bilateral or multilateral innovation and startup ecosystem policy agenda.

2.    Allow the experience exchange on the public, private and R&D level on how to foster international collaboration between companies, startups and applied research.

3.    Review the necessary regulatory and incentive framework to allow companies, startups and applied research of different countries work together to develop innovation and technology projects with triple impact (economic, enviromental and social impact).

4.    Combine already existing public tools for bilateral or multilateral innovation and technology projects and for international key performance indicators to measure tiple impact.

5.    Establish exchange programs for innovative startup companies to become scale-ups.

6.    Support scale-ups that are willing to establish their company in the partner country.

7.    Create technology & innovation free trade zones for highly innovative startups and scale-ups with triple impact.

Latin American innovative Startups can offer interesting solutions in areas like BioTech, EdTech, AgTech, HealthTech, FinTech, Commerce und SaaS. German Startups on the other hand have developed innovative solutions in the fields like GreenTech, EnergyTech, Industry 4.0, Robotics, Cyber Security, Digital Health and Insurtech.

Bilateral or multilateral alliances between, for example, the German Mittelstand and the German startup ecosystem and Latin America for an international innovation and startup ecosystem policy agenda offer important collaboration opportunities and can therefore be a key factor not only for economic revival, competitiveness and value-added industries, but also for sustainable development in Latin America.