According to the United Nations, the population of Latin America is expected to reach 784 million by 2050. That figure, coupled with the region’s progress in technology usage (Latin Trade’s Technology Index 2015) provides a very fertile ground for young entrepreneurs.
The Top 25 Young Entrepreneurs ranking is back in its second edition with a list of some of the region’s brightest business minds. They are taking full advantage of technology, gaps in the market and people’s needs to create innovative companies and ventures.
Examples range from using drones to improve agriculture, allowing people in rural areas to make secure online transactions, corporate marketing solutions or creating a device that translates text to Braille in real-time.
Among the new names this year are Pablo Estrada and Eduardo Benchoam from Guatemala, founders of The Influence, a digital marketing service that uses the latest Silicon Valley technology. Some of their clients include AmBev, Tigo and Saatchi & Saatchi.
Joining them is Mexico’s Javier Lozano, who has redesigned treatment processes for Diabetes patients and brought down costs from $600 to around $140.
One entrepreneur representing Colombia is Paola Tafur Jimenez, founder of SBS Facilitadores, a firm that provides specialized human development solutions for large multinationals operating in Mexico City. Clients include Coca-Cola, HSBC and Telefónica.
These are a few examples of the up and coming business leaders throughout Latin America.
Full list continues below:
Argentina
Gino Tubaro, Founder AtomicLab
At only 21 years of age, Gino has created a device that translates text into Braille in real time. That is only one of the many innovative prosthetics he has designed through his AtomicLab project.. Another of his projects is LIMBS, which aims to create prosthetics free of charge, as well as a variety of 3D printing innovations.
He is studying Electric Engineering, has spoken at TED Talks and taken part in the National Youth Science Camp.
Emilio Kargieman, Satellogic
At age 19, Kargieman founded Core, an IT security firm now earning some $34 million per year. However, he left Core in 2006 to found Satellogic, a developer of miniature satellites that aims to revolutionize the space industry, which is trad
Online auction site DeRemate.com was Oxenford’s first success. Shortly after, he created OLX, an online classified marketplace with presence in more than 106 countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Poland, Peru, Argentina, Switzerland, South Africa, Thailand and several other Latin American nations.
He also created DineroMail, an Internet insurance payment system, now part of South Africa-based Naspers MIH’s PayU. Oxenford is also part of ArteBa, a foundation that promotes Argentine and Latin American art throughout the world.
Brazil
Mike Krieger, co-Founder Instagram
Along with Kevin Systrom, São Paulo-born Mike Krieger created Instagram in 2010, one of the most widely used photo and video sharing social networks in the world.
Mike met Kevin after he moved from São Paulo to the U.S. to study Symbolic Systems at Stanford University. Other notable graduates of Symbolic Systems include Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and Reid Hoffman, co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn.
Mike is also very active in the philanthropy world, and is a partner of GiveWell, a non-profit charity evaluator that focuses in the cost-effectiveness of the organizations it evaluates.
Gustavo Caetano, creator of Samba Tech
Samba Tech offers an online video platform that is specialized in corporate digital communication. It also offers digital marketing and online video advertising solutions. Among its clients are telecoms firms TIM and Oi, Samsung, Endeavor, media company SBT and media conglomerate Abril.
Gustavo studied at the School of Advertising and Marketing in Rio de Janeiro.
Eduardo Saverín, co-creator of Facebook
Brazilian-born Saverín grew up in Miami, Florida and was a classmate of Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard, where they both founded Facebook. After some disputes, Saverín sued and won a lawsuit against the social network and Zuckerberg, which meant he received 7 percent of the company’s property and the right to be called co-founder. He now lives in Singapore where he invests in technology companies such as Shopsavvy, which allows users to buy products from their mobile phones, and Jumio, a new mobile payment technology.
In February 2016, Saverin announced his investment in Hopscotch, an Indian online retailer of baby care and children products. In the same month, he invested in Indonesian e-commerce startup Orami.
Tallis Gomes, Creator of EasyTaxi and SINGU
Five years ago, 27-year-old Tallis Gomes created EasyTaxi, an e-hailing app now available in 420 cities across 20 countries, with some 20 million registered users. His impact and entrepreneurship made him the winner of the very first BRAVO Young Leader of the Year Award in October 2015.
He is also co-founder of eGenius, an organization that offers a full range of services to develop startups.
Tallis is also focused on his most recent venture, SINGU, which connects customers to manicurists, hair stylists, masseuses and yoga teachers who go to their home or office.
Learn more about Tallis in Latin Trade’s full Latin Trade Young Leader of the Year profile.
Colombia
John Freddy Vega, CEO Platzi
Thirty-year-old John is the co-founder and CEO of Platzi Inc., a technology education company.
His entrepreneurial career began at the age of 16, Vega created Cristalab, an online community dedicated to web development. Today Platzi is one of the largest providers of web technology education in the region.
Vega studied Systems Engineering.
Paola Tafur Jimenez, SBSFacilitadores
Paola founded SBS Facilitadores, a company that specializes in designing and facilitating human development processes for large multinationals in Mexico City. She has successfully led projects focusing on delivering results for companies such as Telefónica, Grupo Lala, HSBC, Coca-Cola and Jafra, among others.
Paola studied Business Administration at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá.
David Velez, Founder and CEO NuBank,
David founded NuBank, a leading financial services startup in Brazil which offers clients the possibility of managing their NuBank MasterCard purchases through a mobile app.
David spotted the opportunity for his business after working for Sequoia. His previous experience includes working for Morgan Stanley and General Atlantic.
He studied Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, and also holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Costa Rica
Sergio Ballester, Founder and CEO Indigo Drones
Latin America accounts for 11 percent of the world’s food production. Agriculture in the region grows at a slow rate and many crops are hit by plagues, such as the 2012 coffee rust epidemic in Central America and the Caribbean.
Aiming to change this, Sergio Ballester created Indigo Drones, a company that offers drones to monitor crops that identify and control potential problems. The drones use an artificial intelligence that makes more accurate predictions about potential problems, as well as data such as maturity, the more they are used.
Ecuador
Luis Loaiza, founder of Criptext
Luis wasted no time in realizing the potential of creating an app that allows the user to ‘unsend’ an email. Although there were already similar products, Luis went on to improve the user experience, creating Criptext. The technology redirects the user’s email and encrypts it, and if the user decides to reclaim the message, the email never reaches the recipient’s inbox and blocks the message from being accessed.
Diego Toala, creator of TechnoPark
Through TechnoPark, Diego created a way for Ecuador’s rural population make secure transactions in areas with limited internet access. His technology allows users to benefit from e-commerce and online banking with limited or bad internet connectivity.
Guatemala
Pablo Estrada and Eduardo Benchoam, Founders of The Influence
Pablo and Eduardo lead The Influence, a digital marketing service that connects advertising and marketing firms with Latin American companies via the use of the latest Silicon Valley technology. Among their clients are AmBev, Tigo, L’Occitane and Saatchi & Saatchi.
Pablo studied Marketing at the University of Navarra in Spain. His experience as an entrepreneur includes co-founding SoDash, a social media management tool. He also co-founded The Sandpit, which focuses on developing and launching technologies and related products.
Luis Von Ahn, Co-creator of Captcha and Duolingo
Born in Guatemala, Luis Von Ahn is an IT expert, entrepreneur and professor of Computer Science at the Carnegie Mellon University. He is founder of Duolingo along with Severin Hacker and Antonio Nava (below), Captcha and Recaptcha, the latter sold to Google in 2009.
Captcha and Recaptcha are among the most widely-used web security systems which distorted letters or images to determine whether or not the user of a computer is human.
Antonio Navas, co-creator of Duolingo
Antonio is one of the brains behind the language-learning platform Dueling.
Duolingo is a free language-learning and crowdsourced text translator, designed in a way that as users progress through the lessons, they help translate websites and other documents at the same time.
As of March 2016, Duolingo is looking to expand to India. It already offers language courses in 23 languages, and is developing a further 28. Duolingo has more than 100 million registered users around the world.
Mexico
Javier Lozano, Clinicas del Azucar
Mexico ranks sixth in the world in number of people with Diabetes. Treatments can often cost some $600 per person per year, a figure that for many in the country is very high. Through his initiative, Javier was able to redesign treatment processes and bring down that cost to around $140. Clinicas del Azúcar currently operates four clinics in and around the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, but plans to expand to the whole country and beyond in the future.
Rodrigo Martinez, WePow
Rodrigo came up with an idea to ease companies’ recruiting process through video, and that is how he created WePow in 2010. The company offers video and mobile recruitment services. The video interviews can be live or pre-recorded, saving time and money for both parties involved. Among WePow’s clients are Walmart, CNN, TV Azteca, Coca-Cola Femsa, Colgate, Reuters, Heineken and Fox.
Juan López Salaberry, Partner 500 Startups
Juan leads the 500 Startups in Mexico City, a global venture capital fund and startup accelerator. The platform offers funding of up to $250,000, as well as mentors and strategy design for new startups.
He studied Business Administration in Sweden and Spain.
Juan’s previous experience includes working for Acer, The New York Times, The Independent and EMEA.
Gabriela Enrigue, Founder of Prospera
Gabriela is a consultant at the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, IFC. In 2010 she founded Prospera, a social initiative aimed at helping single mothers living in poverty, unemployed, with low-paying jobs or owners of non profitable businesses. Prospera develops products for companies such as Starbucks, turning once poorly performing businesses into profitable ventures that offer attractive products to consumers.
At the IFC, Enrigue has worked closely with State Secretaries and public policy specialists in countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa and Mexico.
José Rodríguez, co-founder and CEO of Modebo
Modebo is a company that applies technology to offer solutions for energy efficiency in buildings and industry. Their services are tailored to each project and help businesses save in energy and resources. The company was a finalist in the IBM Smart Camp and also won the 2012 Startup World pitch competition.
José studied Mechatronics at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM).
César Salazar, Partner of 500 Startups, 23 Design
Salazar is a partner at 500 Startups, a seed accelerator and business incubator, and has invested in more than 90 companies during their early stages in Latin America, Europe and the US.
He is co-founder of Mexican.VC, the first seed funding initiative focused on Mexican tech startups.
César is also a partner at 23 Design, a firm specializing in design and product strategy in Mexico City. He also serves as a mentor at Endeavor and is an advisor to UP Global.
Paraguay
Christian Chena, the Spanish language Internet domain king and founder of Grupo Chena
Christian A. Chena is known for being the Spanish-speaking world’s largest domainer, investors that trade with Internet domain names. In 2007, he reached the highest number of recorded sales in Spanish domain history and has owned some 100 domains considered to be the most valuable in the Spanish market. In 2007 he sold a large portion of his generic domain names to Marchex, in association with Fox Latinoamérica, for $10 million.
He now heads Grupo Chena, a group aimed at developing businesses. Among the companies and products of Grupo Chena are Teledifusora Paraguay, Los 40 Principales and Clasificados.com.
Uruguay
Victoria Alonsoperez, co-creator of IEETECH and Chipsafer
Wearbale technology is rapidly gaining popularity as an extension of mobile phones, fitness trackers and more. But Victoria has created wearable technology for cattle. The device detects when the animal wearing it has a fever, has wandered out of the owner’s lands or even been stolen, and automatically sends an SMS or email to the owner to let them know.
The potential is huge, given the region’s cattle industry.
Venezuela
Pedro Torres Picón, Founder and Managing Director, Quotidian Ventures
Picón began investing in early stage tech firms in 2004 and is the Founder and Managing Director of New York City-based Quotidian Ventures since 2010. He has invested in more than 60 companies in a wide range of sectors such as real estate, construction management and mobile commerce.