Rockstart to invest USD 100,000 in 12 Latin American startups

Photo: Forbes Uruguay

Rockstart, in its six years of operation in Latin America, has positioned itself as one of the most important accelerators for early-stage startups in the region. 

This year, after receiving over 1300 applications, it has chosen 12 startups for its 5th batch in which it will invest US$100,000 in each one and will speed up in knowledge, capital, relationships, and visibility, seeking results as or more successful than in the previous batch where 100% of the companies received investment after the program, most have tripled their growth after one year of having completed this acceleration process and the portfolio, two years after having invested, is worth 5.6 times more.

Among the selected startups, this program has companies from Colombia, Mexico, and for the first time in the history of Rockstart, Argentina. In addition, the accelerator continues to bet on increasing female participation in the industry. In this 5th Batch, 50% of the startups have women entrepreneurs on the founding team. This is well above the industry average, where only 24% of the startups have a female founder.

As part of the novelties of this Rockstart program, they now also offer entrepreneurs debt financing options through their alliance with the FinTech Kapital, a Mexican startup that went through YC and offers all-in-one FinTech solutions for startups, and several additional alliances for startups in the program with debt funds.

In addition, each of the selected startups will receive more than US$ 945,000 in benefits for their companies, such as Amazon Web Services credits, HoyTrabajas payroll advances, discounts on Fiverr, Ontop, Hubspot, and Amplitude, among other tools. Besides the above, these companies will count on support for their internationalization through two initiatives: first, the “International investor summit”, an event to be held next year that will attract over 300 investors from different parts of the world, and second, soft landing programs to Mexico and Brazil during 2023 to expand into other regions.

These are the 12 companies:

Balam (Mexico): Balam is a remittance platform that allows people to send money abroad for free. www.getbalam.com.mx

Ecomm-App (Argentina): Ecomm-App helps Latin American merchants sell more online, manage their inventory, and quickly invoice their sales. https://www.ecomm-app.com/

Guaapa (Mexico): The best Outlet for prestige brands where beauty is for everyone. https://www.guaapa.com/

Lokl (Colombia): Lokl is a collaborative investment platform that allows you to discover and invest in high-return and high-impact real estate projects from USD 1,000. www.lokl.life

Planet Oliver (Colombia): Planet Oliver reduces food waste by offering, at discounted prices, everything that restaurants and supermarkets did not sell. https://www.planetoliver.com/

Pricezing (Colombia): SaaS helps SMEs in Latin America to set their optimal prices and be more profitable, always starting from understanding their customers and competitors. https://prisier.com/pricezing/

Superbeauty (Colombia): Superbeauty is an online store for beauty businesses in Latin America. https://www.superbeauty.com.co/

Sureti (Colombia): SURETI is a marketplace that allows people with savings to invest in those who need to finance their projects. https://www.sureti.co/

Sway Compass (Mexico): Sway compass analyzes hundreds of data to get the optimal mortgage loan for each applicant, thus saving five years of work in interest. https://www.swaycompass.com/

We book you (Mexico): A platform for corporate travel management, everything you need in one place. https://webookyou.com/

Weseed (Colombia): Weseed is the first 100% digital platform that allows Colombians to invest in buying and selling real estate making 5 million (COP). https://soyweseed.com/

You internet (Colombia): You Internet reduces the digital divide in Latam through internet services with wireless technology. https://youinternet.co/  

Source: Forbes Staff (2022, September 29). Rockstart invertirá US $100.000 en 12 startups de América Latina. Forbes Uruguay. Retrieved September 29, 2022 from https://www.forbesuruguay.com/negocios/rockstart-invertira-us-100000-12-startups-america-latina-n22748