Latin American Entrepreneurs meet in Nicaragua

PRLog (Press Release) - Feb. 1, 2013 - Thirty-six entrepreneurs representing 25 companies from Mexico to Chile arrived in Managua, Nicaragua this week for the start of Agora Partnerships’ Entrepreneur Retreat, a four-day kick-off to Agora’s Impact Accelerator.

The phrase Impact Accelerator refers to a program that invests and leverages social, human, and financial capital into entrepreneurs working intentionally to create a more just, prosperous, and healthy world. Agora’s Impact Accelerator provides strategic consulting services to its entrepreneurs, prepares them for investment, and connects them to impact investors around the globe. The ultimate goal of the Accelerator is to help companies scale businesses that are creating positive impact.

These aren’t your average entrepreneurs. They’re cut from different fabric than “traditional entrepreneurship.” They are solving critical social, economic, and environmental problems in their communities through their businesses. From producing high-quality housewares from recycled materials using bottom-of-the-pyramid artisans in Mexico to growing sustainable cacao in the mountains of Belize, to leveraging user’s social networks to promote environmentally friendly behavior through an app in Uruguay, these entrepreneurs are collectively redefining the term entrepreneurship.

Agora’s Class of 2013 contains 27 companies from 13 countries, 9 industries, and 10 areas of impact. The class, as a whole, represents over $7 million in sales, more than 475 employees, and seeks approximately $20 million in investment. One particular point of interest revolves around the heavy participation of women in this year’s class; 44 percent of the participating companies are owned or co-owned by women.

“I think as a class, these entrepreneurs represent some of the most exhilarating business opportunities I’ve ever come across in Latin America, all with the potential to create significant social and environmental impact,” said Ricardo Teran, Agora Partnerships’ co-founder and entrepreneur-in-residence. “These entrepreneurs are committed, passionate, and focused on what they need to do to build successful companies that could scale the impact they seek.”

“It’s great to meet the entrepreneurs, especially other entrepreneurs here in Nicaragua,” says Ariel Chait of Agora’s Class of 2013 company Acopio, an IT company offering mobile technology solutions to collect, manage and share data along the agricultural value chain. “Being part of Agora’s Accelerator will strengthen the network of people we work with in Latin America. It’s great to learn from the stories of the other entrepreneurs. We believe what we learn here will lead to the growth of our social impact.”

This article first appeared in The Nicaragua Dispatch.