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Table of Contents

GENERAL ASPECTS .............................................................................................................................................................. 2

ICT SECTOR ............................................................................................................................................................................. 3

FINTECH ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

MINING AND ENERGY ......................................................................................................................................................... 9

STARTUPS IN THEIR OWN WORDS ........................................................................................................................10

INFOGRAPHIC: Peruvian Startup Ecosystem ......................................................................................................11

ABOUT GO SOUTH! .........................................................................................................................................................12

ABOUT LATAM STARTUPS ...........................................................................................................................................12

CONTACT US ........................................................................................................................................................................13


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The Startup Ecosystem in Peru

GENERAL ASPECTS

Peru is booming. And not just tourism,

either—the high-tech sector is about to

explode.

But Peru can be a difficult place to do

business, if you don’t know how the

country works.

This white paper highlights the developing

tech sectors in Peru and offers insights

on how best to take advantage of the

opportunities available right now in the

Peruvian market.

Peru has a population of over 30 million people and it’s part of the Pacific Alliance

countries (Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Peru) an economic block in Latin America with a

total population of 218 million people, the counterpart of Brazil in this aspect, as well

in GDP.

The tech sectors that are being developed in Peru include: ICT, Fintech, Energy and

Mining.

The startup ecosystem in Peru is relatively new compared to other countries in the

region. Peru's economy has stabilized over the last two decades, but still lags behinds

its peers in the region in terms of technology and innovation.


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ICT SECTOR

In 2014 the government founded Startup Peru, an initiative modeled on Startup Chile.

The program differs in some aspects, principally in their focus on supporting the

creation of new Peruvian startups, rather than attracting foreign startups to the

country.

Startup Peru provides grants up to USD $50,000 to startups and also provide some

funds to those that are creating incubators and accelerators in the country. The

program receives dozens of applications every year. As per Startup Peru data, the

program was designed to support 48 entrepreneurs in the first year of operations, 100

entrepreneurs in the following year and over 120 entrepreneurs in the third year

(2016).

Other players in the market support startups, and one of them is Wayra, an

international accelerator with branches in different countries in Latin America. Wayra

also gives USD $50,000 as a seed funding and under equity terms, to those startups

developing new applications. Wayra has been in Peru for about 5 years and so far,

they have received applications from 4,500 projects. More than 40 projects under the

Wayra support have been valuated over 10 million dollars each.

But how is Peru doing in terms of access

to internet and uptake of new

technologies?

52% of the population in Peru has access

to the internet, and 43% of the total do

so from their smartphones. Around 6

million Peruvians own a smartphone, a

number increasing rapidly.

Data EMarketer


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Peru's capital, Lima, remains the leader in terms of smartphone penetration. Rural and

regional areas of the country lag behind.

Buying online remains a challenge for many Peruvians, who either lack a bank account

or credit card, or simply do not trust the country's banking system.

Startups in Peru currently focus largely on improving logistics, education tech, and

other markets primarily orientated B2B and less B2C.

The creativity is there, but Peru is facing many challenges to keep developing the ICT

sector.

Necessity is the mother of invention, goes the old saying. And Peruvians are

discovering that the future lies, in large part, in their own hands.

Peru has a lack of a good number of quality engineers, the few

good engineers are already taken by some big corporations.

—Gonzalo Villarán, Director at UTEC Ventures (Peruvian Accelerator)

Peru does not lack seedfunding but, like so much of Latin America, suffers from the

"Series A Valley of Death"—great startups that should flourish wither and die for lack

of follow-on financing.

From the entrepreneurial side the situation is very hard. Our

metrics and numbers are doing really well—but we don’t find local

investors, we have knocked doors but Peruvian investors are not

very confident investing locally.

—Gary Urteaga, CEO Cinepapaya

http://utecventures.com/

https://www.cinepapaya.com/


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Despite these challenges, Peruvians know it’s only a matter of time before the country

catches up with its peers in the region, and are working hard to close that gap.

The transformation is coming to Peru—Government, universities, and some other players

are putting an effort to create a good startup ecosystem.

Universities are creating business incubators, the government is

helping with that, and in the last years we have seen a better

quality in the startups that are going to the market.

—José de la Fuente Soriano, Founder at Quipu Group Consulting

& Investment

The opportunities for startups and investors is to look into Latin

American markets, not only Peru, looking to expand internationally

in Latin America, that’s a good point to start, try to grow

whatever is working in Peru to the neighborhood due the similar

culture and economies.

— Gonzalo Villarán, Director at UTEC Ventures

Foreign investors looking to enter the Peruvian market need to consider Peru as part

of their regional strategy—unless your company works in infrastructure or mining, in

which case, you definitely cannot afford to ignore Peru any longer.

Peru is in a very early stage, is not as developed as Chile, Mexico

or Colombia, but there is where investors can get an opportunity.

—Patrick Watson, Director Financial Services Group at IDEV

International

https://www.linkedin.com/company/10288316?trk=prof-exp-company-name

https://www.linkedin.com/company/10288316?trk=prof-exp-company-name


http://idevinternational.com/

http://idevinternational.com/


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Peru has an ecosystem with growing connectors, incubators, accelerators and startups.

Some of those players are:

Wayra (an accelerator with presence in several countries in Latin America and Europe)

UTEC Ventures (Local accelerator)

Lima Valley (Community of entrepreneurs and startups in Lima)

StarUPC (Business incubator of University UPC)

UPCH (University with a business incubator focused in R&D)

http://wayra.co/en/


https://www.facebook.com/limavalley/timeline

http://www.startupc.pe/

http://www.upch.edu.pe/vracad/duged/gestion-curricular/informes/incubadora.html


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FINTECH

Solutions in the financial sector are

needed in. The country has one of

the strongest financial sectors in

the region, but access to banking

for the main part of the population

is not that easy, only 29% of the

adults have access to banking,

according with the Global Findex

2014.

The government of Peru has put

together a strategy to get the rest

of the adult population into the

banking system over the next seven years. Opportunities abound for fintech startups,

especially those that offer "trust-less" solutions.

Peru's population of around 30 million people boasts 32 million cell phones, of which

around 6 million are smartphones. Peruvian banks have teamed up to get money

moving through those phones, and in December, 2015 as part of their Peru Digital

Payments consortium, launched Bim, a mobile payment program that unites all their

online customer interfaces on one system. Smartphone adoption in Peru is expected to

skyrocket in the near future, and the banks are eager to offer their services to a new

generation of consumer.

Indeed, some of Peru's biggest companies, including brewer Backus & Johnston, have

signed up to start using Bim for transaction with retailers starting March 2016. Backus,

a subsidiary of brewing giant SABMiller, collects mostly cash payments weekly from

115,000 bodegas and small shops, many high in the Andes or near the Amazon

rainforest.

“Dealing in cash requires a lot of processing by hand, expenses, and risk,” Luis

Guzman, Backus's company treasure, told Bloomberg News.

http://datatopics.worldbank.org/financialinclusion/country/peru

http://datatopics.worldbank.org/financialinclusion/country/peru

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-17/peru-s-banks-push-through-a-unified-digital-payment-system


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Crowdfunding is making some inroads in Peru, but the lack of regulations is so far

deterring wider adoption. Users trust and use Indiegogo, but local startups are building

local crowdfunding sites.

Bitcoin adoption in Peru has been poor so far, mainly because banks are opposed to

the crypto-currency. As Roger Benites, the founder of Peru-based bitcoin startup BitInka

told us in an interview “It’s tough to talk bitcoin here in South America, especially to

banks. “They see it as a threat [...] They saw it mostly as we were trying to build a

bank."

Unlike Argentina or Venezuela, where Bitcoin has proved popular—because capital

controls impose an artificial exchange rate to discourage capital flight—Peru does not

impose such capital controls, making Bitcoin, so far, not terribly popular.


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MINING AND ENERGY

Mining in Peru, like many countries is Latin America, remains a big part of the

economy.

Innova Peru, an initiative of the Peruvian government, has invested in more than 700

startups in innovate new solutions in the mining sector.

Innova Peru is also sending local

engineers and innovators to visit other

countries in the region, to identify new

developments in the mining sector and

encourage regional cooperation.

In the Energy sector, the government is exploring how to deploy more renewable

energy sources in the country. Peru is especially interested in solar energy, wind farms,

geothermal energy and biomass. Over the last decade renewable energy production in

Peru has increased an average 7% per year, with geothermal leading the way at an

average of 14% per year. By comparison, traditional hydroelectric power increased at

an average rate of 10%.

Many rural and regional part of Peru remain without electricity. The Peruvian

government is especially interested in low-cost methods to bring solar or wind power

to these small, isolated communities.

Initiatives like The National Awards of Technology and Innovation in the Mining and

Energy sector by the National Society of Mining, Oil and Energy (SNMPE) is one of the

examples that the private and public sectors are putting an effort to find solutions in

the market and also promoting R&D in these two sectors in order to improve the

efficiency in projects related with the Mining and Energy industry.

http://www.snmpe.pe/premio-innovacion-tecnologica/


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STARTUPS IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Many startups in Peru have faced the same situation, it’s hard enough to start to add

a lack of investment, mentoring and other kind of support to grow their business. But

the entrepreneurial spirit, the example from other successful startups in the region and

the potential they see in their own market and in the region has helped them to

continue the hard work.

Interesting to see mainly startups

Peruvian startups are looking to expand in the other countries part of the Pacific

Alliance countries.

And what Peruvian startups would like to say to the government?

If you’d like to know more about this chat with startups please check out our Storify

here.

https://storify.com/LatAmStartups/peru-in-the-spotlight-latamchats


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INFOGRAPHIC: Peruvian Startup Ecosystem


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ABOUT GO SOUTH! We are your guide to doing business in Latin America. We specialize in helping small to medium-

sized hi-tech companies to develop business and marketing strategies.

Doing business in Latin America is not as simple as translating your website into Spanish. Unlike

North America, business in Chile, or Peru, or Colombia is done in person, face to face. Even if you

speak Spanish fluently—and not all companies have a Spanish-speaker on staff—we can make

your entry into this new market as smooth as possible.

ABOUT LATAM STARTUPS LatAm Startups in an initiative founded by Go South! Consulting Inc. We help startups scale.


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CONTACT US Business Development: Miryam Lazarte

Email: [email protected]

[email protected]

Phone number: + 1-647-888-3715

www.GoSouthConsulting.com

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.gosouthconsulting.com/

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