IDB selects 15 startups to participate in Demand Solutions program

Demand Solutions: Ideas for Improving Lives in Cities, to be held on September 29 at IDB headquarters, aims to bring together creative minds offering innovative solutions to urban challenges around the world

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced today –coinciding with International Youth Day– the 15 startups from Latin America and the Caribbean, founded by innovators 18 to 35 years old, that have been chosen to take part in Demand Solutions. The finalists were selected from a pool of 200 applicants from 19 countries, with the help of expert judges in areas including entrepreneurship, innovation and crowdfunding.

A co-founder from each selected startup will travel to Washington, D.C. to take part in Demand Solutions and the associated Venture Night competition, where they will pitch their startups to the audience and a group of judges. The selected startups will also participate in four days of activities with innovators, media, entrepreneurs, and investors.

The startups selected are:

Startup Representative Country Usound - newbrick Patricia Sánchez Argentina Carpoolear Gabriel Weitz Argentina Caribbean Transit Solutions Khalil Bryan Barbados Colab.re – Plataforma de ligação
entre cidadãos e governo Bruno Aracaty Brazil Noocity Growbed Rafael Loschiavo Brazil 1DOC3 S.A.S. Alejandro Pinzón Colombia Cautoh León Hernández Colombia FirstJob.me Mario Mora Chile All Green Up Javiera Luongo Chile Kangou Urban Delivery S.A.P.I. de
C.V. Miguel Angel Islas Mexico Topa Gustavo Adolfo Riart Arce Paraguay Laboratoria Mariana Costa Peru Mento Sofia Orellano Uruguay OINCS Marcelo Wilkorwsky Uruguay Akdemia Juan Andrés Lagrange Venezuela

In addition to the 15 startups, Guillermo Castelli,cofounder of QuadMinds will participate in Venture Night. He was selected through the Red Innova competition sponsored by the IDB in Argentina.

The co-founders of the startups will have the opportunity to work with Fly Garage, a Mondeléz International innovation incubator, as well as with +Castro and Contagious, in activities designed to boost their entrepreneurial creativity and keep enhancing their work and impact. Fly Garage gatherspeople in a physical and intellectual space to work together for two days. A multidisciplinary team of collaborators, experts, entrepreneurs, innovators and students, all join in the “Garage” to address a challenge and build a solution in an intense process of learning and creating.

IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno will inaugurate the event and introduce the selected startups.

Demand Solutions is being held for the third straight year at the headquarters of the IDB together with the Blum Center for Developing Economies of the University of California, Berkeley. Other partners are Agora Accelerator, IE Business School, Red Emprendia of Banco Santander, and Telefonica. The call for startups was managed via NEXSO, a platform developed by the Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund that manages competitions, call for proposals, and offers a space where organizations can share their projects.

This year Demand Solutions will be held on September 29 starting at 9:00 am EDT. Those interested in attending the event in Washington, D.C. or watching it via Livestream (in English, Spanish or Portuguese) can register at http://goo.gl/1Z6jwt.