The key players in financing and developing entrepreneurial ecosystems came together for the IDB Group's second flagship event to promote innovation and technology that improves lives in our region

IDB Lab Forum, the event led by IDB Lab, the IDB Group's innovation laboratory, concluded after two days of intense activities highlighting the importance of early-stage financing and the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems in promoting innovative solutions to significant economic and social challenges of Latin America and the Caribbean.

More than 650 participants from 37 countries, including entrepreneurs, investors, corporations, accelerators, and other actors in the innovation ecosystem, participated in Bogota, Colombia, in this high-level meeting, where they found content, connections, and investment opportunities to launch new initiatives. The agenda addressed in more than 28 panels and interventions the possibilities of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to respond to the priorities and needs of our region in mitigation and adaptation to climate change, innovation and Deep Tech as engines of growth, sustainable digital infrastructure, and the fight against inequality, transversally incorporating issues of gender, diversity, climate, and biodiversity.

The agenda included in-person and streaming sessions in which three new publications by the IDB Group were launched. They explore the importance of well-being and mental health in promoting a high-impact entrepreneurial ecosystem in our region, the potential of Deep Tech in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the benefits of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) for Latin American entrepreneurs.

This second edition of IDB Lab Forum incorporated into its agenda WeXchange. This IDB Lab's platform is pioneer in promoting female entrepreneurship in STEM areas (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in Latin America and the Caribbean. During the event 15 dynamic female entrepreneurs in our region participated in activities specifically designed for their needs, including the Startup Academy, Google for Startup’s acceleration microprogram for startups, and pitched their businesses to venture capital investors and key players in the innovation ecosystem of Latin America and the Caribbean.

IDB Lab Forum was an exceptional framework for the protocol signing of two new projects that will have financing and technical cooperation from the IDB Group and that develop innovative solutions on issues such as:
 

• Strengthening the voluntary biodiversity credit market with digital tokens, one of the first in the world, and an income opportunity for landowners who carry out conservation measures. This program will be executed by the Colombian startup Terrassos, which was selected in the recent Call for Digital Tokens for Biodiversity by IDB Lab.
• Agricultural financial technology  to expand credit to small-scale producers with digital-based technology products by supporting the Colombian company Agricapital. 

The entrepreneurial ecosystem and bioeconomy were also at the center of the presentation of the initiative HeCo Invest, a digital platform that uses advanced technologies and artificial intelligence applications to achieve connections that favor high-impact projects prioritized by the Herencia Colombia program.

The meeting of the key players of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems at IDB Lab Forum served as a framework for the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of IDB Lab, whose agenda has been adapted to the needs of the region and which is currently in full evolution to become an innovation hub for development in Latin America and the Caribbean, always at the service of its vulnerable populations. "Together with the IDB, IDB Invest, and external allies, we will identify challenges in the region where entrepreneurial innovation can make a big difference so that, together, we can deploy programs that address its different aspects and achieve real and lasting impact at scale," said Irene Arias Hofman, CEO of IDB Lab.