Argentina has faced numerous challenges that hindered its economic progress, from political disputes to corruption incidents. However, the South American nation has managed to stay in the top 3 Latin American countries to gain recognition as an entrepreneurship hub, along with Mexico and Brazil.
Indeed, the country is no stranger to startup success. With MercadoLibre, Digital Ventures and OLX, the startup ecosystem offers strong competition against other successful hubs, like Colombia and Chile.
While other economical issues are planned to be addressed in the next G20 summit, the country hasn’t fallen short of privately-owned funding institutions. Let’s look at some of the best accelerator programs encouraging startups across the nation.
Wolox
Based in the nation’s capital, Buenos Aires, this accelerator provides software assistance to up and coming startups.
The organization operates on the lean startup methodology, enabling agile progression speeds, allowing startups to have a chance at becoming the next big business.
The downfall of this program lies within the lack of granted funding. However, the lack of need for a software development allocated budget should help startups to scale up on smaller capitals.
GLOCAL Agtech
GLOCAL is based in Rosario, a city now at the center of the agribusiness sector in Argentina. Inherently, the five-month program is mainly aiming for startups specialized agrotech, biotech and fintech.
Not only does this accelerator provide $25k-50k in funding, but also matches the amount in services provided to startups, including marketing, sales management, human resources and mentorship.
Most notably, the accelerator connects accepted startups to stakeholders in the industry. Through a powerful network, entrepreneurs have access to farmers, brokers, distributors, exporters, industries, traders and insurance companies, empowering the startups with long-term relationship starting their infancy.
Xpand Ventures Program
With the slogan of “We transform Argentinean startups into global players” this program is mainly aimed at startups in their early stages.
While the program is willing to provide $50k-250k in financial support to startups involved in agrotech, insurtech, e-commerce and media, it prioritizes entrepreneurship in IoT, mobile and high-speed internet.
Besides monetary support, Xpand provides its participants with advertising through Grupo Clarin’s media outlets, as well as consultation in law, HR, and finance, completely free-of-charge.
Lastly, the program extends a tailor-made mentorship program and networking capabilities in its campus that is powered with a 100 MB speed internet connection.
Eklos
Powered by one of the world’s leading beer brewing companies, Ab InBev, this program is in search for charismatic participants who are in possession of working projects or actual business prototypes.
Being involved in a program hosted by a large corporation comes with a myriad of benefits. Starting a scalable amount of equity funding, as well as 6 months access to a corporate-grade working space.
Accepted startups will experience mentorship from Endeavour, as well as guidance from InBev leaders. Moreover, entrepreneurs will be receiving formal training from Naves IAE Program, well-renowned business school for entrepreneurs, all while powered with the Amazon Web Services Activate Program.
Wayra Argentina
Powered by one of the nation’s main telecommunication operators, Wayra is not only an accelerator program, but also a coworking and networking space.
The program initially provides accepted startups with $50,000 to finance their projects. Going beyond, the program’s power lies within their coworking space, filled with mentors, industry professionals, and fellow entrepreneurs who provide startups with an atmosphere of constant and professional support.
A certain plus of working in such a space is the fact that it’s constantly in the spotlight of giants in the industry. Having a telecom corporate boosting a startup’s name can immediately take it from just being a business model to a nationwide business.