AndesBeat named media partner for Riverwood Capital's Latin America Start-Up Challenge

June 4, 2012 - PRLog -- Santiago, Chile - AndesBeat, Latin America’s first English language media publication dedicated to ‘covering the uncovered’ stories in Latin America’s emerging startup scene announced today they have been selected as a media partner for Riverwood Capital's recently launched Latin America Start-Up Challenge which will award more than US $200,000 in awards, investments and prizes.

Headquartered in Menlo Park, CA, Riverwood Capital is a globally-focused private equity firm that invests in high-growth businesses in the technology and services industries, across a variety of verticals and geographies.

In addition to promoting the competition among Chile's developers, startup and technology communities, as part of their cultural game-changing mission, AndesBeat will be helping local startup founders and tech entrepreneurs with preparing their 'globally competitive' applications and business plans in English.

"The Riverwood Capital competition is a huge boost for the Chilean and Latin America startup communities," stated AndesBeat co-founder, Carlos Leiva. "It will bring major investment, visibility and internationally credible networks, which are all critical for Latin America startups wanting to scale outside of their respective countries. And it also aligns with one of our challenges we are addressing at AndesBeat which is to get local startup founders to stop thinking in millions of pesos Chileno and start thinking in millions of dollars US."

The Latin America start-up challenge is co-sponsored by Riverwood Capital in collaboration with Silicon Valley Bank and Qualcomm Ventures. The contest is targeted at businesses with a focus in the mobile, web, cloud or big data space. Two grand prize winners (one in web/cloud/data storage etc. will win a US $100,000 investment and one in mobile will win a US $100,000 investment with a chance to compete in the U.S.A. for another US $150,000 at the QPrize Finals).

The Latin America Mobile, Web & Cloud Start-Up Challenge is open to new and early stage high-growth potential technology startups that have raised less than $1,000,000 USD to date. Multiple teams will have the opportunity to win cash, trips and a host of prizes. Applications are open May 29, 2012 through midnight, August 15, 2012.

Five finalists will be flown to Punta Tech in Punta del Este, Uruguay to present to a distinguished panel of judges including: Bill Tai, a serial entrepreneur and avid kite-boarder who has taken 19 companies public; Francisco Alvarez Demalde, a founding partner of Riverwood Capital and an active technology investor in Latin America; Veronica Serra, a partner at Pacific Investimentos and Board member of MercadoLibre and Oliver Alexander Flögel, Executive Secretary for Digital Development, Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications, Chile (and former CEO in Telefónica).

More details on the contest and the application can be found at www.latamstartupchallenge.com