First of all, the rapid growth of technology and internet penetration. It’s predicted that by 2019 Latam’s online users will surpass the 387.2m mark. It means that more and more young people are gaining access to high-quality learning opportunities and tools like acceleration programs from world-class companies and universities.

Moreover, the governments in Latam countries foresee the potential of the tech community for economic growth and during the last couple of years have been trying to pass startup-friendly laws to encourage citizens to create their businesses. No doubt, government’s support is one of the major cornerstones of a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem. But there’s still much work to do, and the most critical task is to make sure that the local early-stage companies have enough opportunities to get financial support.

Lack of funding is one of the key challenges facing startups today, especially in emerging markets where entrepreneurial ecosystems are still a bit shaky. This year, during the Seedstars World tour across Latin America our team has selected 12 startups who will join Seedstars Latam Summit and will get a chance to compete for up to $500k in equity investment at 2019 Seedstars Summit on the 5th of April in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Meet the brightest startups from Latin America that we were lucky enough to discover during our tour across the continent:

Ecuador

SpeakLiz
About 470M deaf worldwide want to communicate with hearing people, but they speak different languages. SpeakLiz is breaking that barrier forever.

Mexico
Getabed
A Shopify for the independent hotels. The solution helps its clients sell their services without relying on 3rd parties and paying high commissions.

Peru
Rebajatuscuentas.com
RebajaTusCuentas.com is a financial advisor that helps lower the payments a client makes for commercial products.

Argentina
Blended
Blended is the most popular school management system in Argentina.

Dominican Republic
Okus
Okus is a digital tool that functions as a smart assistant for teachers and parents and as a virtual tutor for students.

Colombia
Hometuls
Hometuls delivers a game-changing financing and procurement service for small and middle businesses through an easy-to-use digital platform.

Chile
Queplan.cl
An online platform helping people choose health insurance with the best terms.

Bolivia
Panal Fresh
A fresh food delivery platform.

Costa Rica
Defter Sports
Defter Sports helps Latin American football (soccer) coaches, players and parents to communicate better with each other.

Brasil
Apptite
#1 delivery app that connects chefs and clients who look for healthy meals with fresh ingredients

Panama
Fortesza
A crowdfactoring platform that connects small and middle businesses in need of financial support with investors from all over the world.

Guatemala
Doctor Online
A digital platform that provides immediate remote access to doctors via chat or video conference through any device (Web, iOS, Android) for the insurance industry.

Also, this year we are happy to welcome to the Summit Picterra, a tech startup from Switzerland. Their solution offers AI as a service for Earth observation imagery, with the aim to put powerful deep learning models at users’ fingertips.

In parallel to our main summit activities, together with our partner Inicia Educación, we will have a side competition for specially selected EdTech startups. These five startups will pitch their company’s solution on the main stage on December 6th in front of a panel of judges. Based on their solution’s ability to ease the learning process, traction, and revenue, Blended (Argentina), Boki (Uruguay), Canduit (Chile), Processim Labs (Costa Rica), or Roma Evaluaciones (Chile) will win a grant of a $5,000.

After Seedstars Latam Summit, the startup teams will be preparing for the global competition at Seedstars Summit in Switzerland. The event will bring together about 2K participants from 5 regions — Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Central & Eastern Europe — to discuss the burning issues in emerging markets and choose the global winner.