The Visa Foundation and Village Capital announced the 20 startups selected for their Future of Food in Latin America 2021 program.
The call sought entrepreneurs who are building high-growth projects in the agritech and foodtech sectors and received 117 applications from 15 countries in the region such as: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala , Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia and Uruguay.
These are the selected ventures:
Agros (Piura, Peru) creates virtual identities for farmers who cannot validate their business, allowing them to access services that would not otherwise be available to them.
Bio Natural Solutions (Lima, Peru) reuses tropical fruit residues to develop a safe and natural protection for fruits and vegetables that doubles their shelf life and is 100% toxic free.
Ciencia Pura (Santiago, Chile) improves field productivity with software (IoT) that illuminates plants during their different growth stages when natural light is insufficient.
ClearLeaf (San José, Costa Rica) creates a natural and completely toxic-free fungicide that improves plant growth and reduces health risks for farmers and consumers.
Costa Rica Insect Company (Cartago, Costa Rica) creates nutritional solutions based on insects, with 0% waste, that attack food shortages and malnutrition. Uses 90% less water and space than current animal protein solutions.
Digital Twin Corporation (Guatemala, Guatemala) helps farmers make decisions through predictive information generated by its prototype IoT platform, which uses fruit-shaped devices to travel alongside real fruits in the supply chain to capture information .
Done Properly Co (Santiago, Chile) uses microorganisms and fermentation technology to transform raw materials and obtain 100% natural and sustainable protein.
Faba (São Leopoldo, Brazil) extracts protein from chickpeas in a sustainable way.
Fotortec (Santiago, Chile) transforms agricultural residues into mushrooms that can be used in different industries, for example, as flavor and protein enhancers in the food industry.
Guru Inc (Rodney Bay, St Lucia) operates a digital marketplace that helps farmers align their production with future demand.
ManejeBem (Florianópolis, Brazil) offers “Manejechat”, an application that helps small farmers to communicate with technicians to solve problems that may arise during the harvest.
Plant Squad (Mexico City, Mexico) develops plant-based protein with nutritional balance and environmental awareness.
Rit(Santiago, Chile) operates a digital market that sells food waste from local restaurants at a reduced price.
Savetic (Buenos Aires, Argentina) develops software that tracks supermarket products to analyze data and predict trends to reduce waste.
SensaIOTech (São Paulo, Brazil) operates a platform that monitors crops and collects information to identify and predict pests.
Sensix (Minas Gerais, Brazil) uses drones and artificial intelligence to map soil fertility and other information, to improve decision-making and predict productivity.
SiembraCo (Bogotá, Colombia) allows its users, usually restaurants, to buy the virtual equivalent of a plot that is managed by local farmers where they can harvest what they consume and eliminate intermediaries.
Suyana (Santiago, Chile) provides weather insurance against catastrophic agricultural risks in places where little historical information is available.
The Earth Says (Santiago, Chile) analyzes pollinator abundance in real time to increase crop yields.
UrbanaGrow (Santiago, Chile) creates modular farms that can be placed anywhere to grow vegetables at any time of the year.
Participating entrepreneurs will benefit from Village Capital’s experience, which includes connections and personalized mentoring with potential clients, investors, and industry experts. In addition, two projects (from each of the 2 cohorts) will be chosen from among the participants to receive $ 20,000 in funding to support their operations.
The selected startups are impacting the livelihood of farmers, feeding growing populations, preventing food waste, and strengthening agricultural productivity.
