top 10 latam’s most impactful startups 2018!
Contxto – Yes, we’re new. But that doesn’t mean we cannot have our own Top 10 ranking list.
This was a great year for Latino companies. There are some great startups out there, solving real issues and getting great traction. Take a look at the companies we think are leaving some long-lasting impact in Latin America and/or the world!
Country: Brazil
Why? Financial inclusion is undoubtedly one of Latam’s biggest issues. 250 million adults are under or unbanked, this is around 65% of the total population in the region. This is mostly due to archaic banking practices, Nubank is trying to challenge the status quo.
Country: Mexico
Description: Sunu creates enabling technology to empower the visually impaired with freedom of mobility.
Why? There’s approximately 1.3B people living with some sort of visually disability worldwide. It’s amazing how little the technology for helping blind citizens has changed. The walking stick is almost 100 years old. Sunu is finally changing that.
Country: Argentina
Why? Nanosatellites. Do we have to say more? Be it for agro-planning and predicting, market intelligence, pipeline monitoring or even disaster response, Satellogic is having deep and quick impact in this old-school industry.
Country: Mexico
Description: Unima is fast and low cost diagnostics and infectious disease surveillance for limited resource settings.
Why? In Latin America, 30% of the population do not have access to basic healthcare services. This is about 140 million people. Unima tackles this massive problem with a low-cost and practical disease diagnosis tool, available to anyone, anywhere.
Country: Brazil
Description: Smartmatic is the world’s leading elections company.
Why? More than half of latin americans think their government is failing to address corruption issues. If you’re latino, chances are you’ve been witness of a corruption situation. Well, Smartmatic is now here to improve electoral processes through blockchain technology. It has already been used in Brazil’s presidential elections and in countries like Belgium, Italy, Sierra Leone, among others.
Country: Colombia
Description: Rappi is a marketplace that connects users who want to purchase prepared foods, groceries, clothes, and more.
Why? Rappi not only delivers your morning burrito right to your office, but a larger underlying problem is being improved as well: city traffic and mobility issues. Remember life before Rappi? You probably had to use your car, therefore contributing to city traffic.
Country: Brazil
Description: TNH Health creates AI-powered chatbots to help healthcare organizations engage and monitor large patient populations.
Why? Disease and infection outbreaks could be easily prevented if the right processes were implemented. Unfortunately, people in low and middle-income areas have limited access to these processes. TNH Health works with public and private institutions to educate, monitor and engage with the people and the population’s health status, using chatbots and AI.
Country: Chile
Why? Transfering money across banks has always been annoying. Even worse, moving money across countries is a real pain in the butt. Remittances are huge for most Latin American countries, and until today there are very few options to choose from. LaPlataForma helps people in Latam transfer their money freely, easily and very safely!
Country: Brazil
Description: Olho do Dono develops is a 3D camera to calculate the weight of the cattle.
Why? 15% of Latin America’s job market comes from the Agro industry. It is that important. Olho do Dono helps farmers accurately track data of their cattle in a practical and digital way.
Country: Guatemala
Description: Duolingo is the world’s largest language learning platform with over 300 million users.
Why? Even though it’s headquartered in the US, the famous app was developed by the Guatemalan entrepeneur, Luis von Ahn, who also developed Captcha! It seems obvious to say that Duo Lingo is the go-to mobile platform for learning languagues worldwide.
Let us know which one you like the most! If these were nominees, who would be the final winner?
– VC.
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