Bogotá — After having presented its Colombia Tech Report 2021 in February, KPMG Colombia continues to forecast the growth of local startups, not only in the country but also at a regional level across Latin America, and recently participated in a business delegation to Brazil to explore growth and investment prospects for Colombian startups.
Also participating in the delegation was Colombian investment promotion agency ProColombia, as well as 16 Colombian startups from a variety of sectors such as fintech, retailtech and healthtech, and 30 Brazilian venture capital funds.
The aim of the mission was to continue to support the growth of the innovation sphere in the country, increase support for investment and innovation, and provide support to Colombian startups landing in Brazil, as well as supporting investment by Brazilian funds in Colombian companies and promoting the relationship between the two countries through KPMG, Innpulsa and ProColombia.
Participants in the mission visited the Brazilian Stock Exchange, where they were able to see the companies that were already listed on the capital market, as well as those that plan to delist, in a visit that promoted the opportunity to invest in those startups.
They also visited Cubo Itaú, the most important accelerator in Latin America that, since 2015, has attracted and selected startups in their traction phase and with a high scalability potential to boost their business and economies.
Participating in the event were Camilo Bueno, lead partner of growth and strategy at KPMG Colombia; Oliver Cunningham, innovation partner at KPMG Brazil; Martin Escobar, private enterprise leader at KPMG Colombia, and Eric Acher, managing partner and co-founder of Monashees, a Brazilian venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs committed to creating innovative solutions.
The participants discussed and fielded questions on investment opportunities in Colombia, while Gustavo Araujo, co-founder and CRO of Distrito, a Brazilian technology platform, presented the results of the Colombia Tech Report 2021.
The event was also attended by representatives of Colombian companies including Rappi, Frubana, Muncher, Tul and Chiper.
“In Colombia we have an entrepreneurial and technological innovation space with more than 1,110 startups. Every day we put another grain of sand into this exponential growth, and having the support of a giant of innovation and entrepreneurship such as Brazil gives us the opportunity to continue growing, but above all it gives us the impetus we need to continue building the country and, of course, the region” KPMG Colombia’s Martin Escobar said.
How do the Colombian and Brazilian startup spheres differ?
The participants in the event discussed the challenges of entrepreneurship in Brazil, identifying the entangled and lengthy bureaucracy in the process of the incorporation of companies, and which is not so user-friendly for foreigners, as the biggest challenge, in addition to the language difference between the two countries.
In addition, with Brazil being the largest country in South America, the needs, objectives, challenges and difficulties in terms of entrepreneurship are different in each region of the country, and entrepreneurs looking to set up shop in the country need to have a plan of action to face those difficulties, according to the participants.
A similar event is planned for Mexico in August, which is also a leading entrepreneurial seedbed in Latin America.
Translated from the Spanish by Adam Critchley