Mexico is on the stage in many spheres and startups is one of them. The Mexican pushing economy and the endless talent flow and undertaking capacity have placed Mexico in the focus of investors and companies. They talk about Mexico, and about cities like the capital, Guadalajara or Monterrey, as a serious alternative to Silicon Valley. Several weeks ago, Google announced the opening of business accelerators in Latin America with the aim to teach people to create enterprises to the style of Silicon Valley. Google Launchpad will open in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia its own accelerators to give an impulse to local startups. It is working in its respective capitals to prepare the adequate space to host enterprises of recent creation and vocation of fast growing.
The news coincides in time with the announcement of the data about the Mexican startups´ ecosystems in 2017. Over 80 new Mexican startups belonging to the Fintech Sector (Financial technology) placed the country in the first position in the run for the Fintech innovation in Latin America, even ahead of the powerful Brazil. Finnovista, an accelarator of Fintech enterprises, devotes to make a regular follow-up of startups´ behavior in Latin America. In its latest reports, it reveals some interesting data: a new generation of enterprise projects has come up in Mexico in 2017 that has put the country in the technological vanguard. Summing up, it is about the 238 “Fintech” enterprises, a 50 % more than those registered in 2016.
Most of these enterprises focus in payments and remittances, personal financial administration, crowd funding and lending. The Mexican startups made seventy three financial agreements during 2017 for the value of 130 million dollars, the first time the country has the largest amount of venture capital transaction in Latin America, according to the Asociación Latinoamericana de Private Equity & Venture Capital (Latin American Association of Private Equity & Venture Capital). Brazil attracted more money, with 64 agreements for 279 million.
Moreover, the recent report about the situation of the “Tecnolatins” (private enterprises with technological bases arisen in Latin America), reveals that the majority of them is concentrated in Brazil (59), Argentine (22) and Mexico (17). It also shows that the map of “Technolatins” is very different from the map of the “Multilatins”, that is to say, the multinationals from Latin America (mostly located in traditional sectors) since the key factors to be successful in this space are very different from the traditional sectors. The New Year also shows as promising for the Mexican startups´ ecosystem and experts agree to point out that the trend to grow up will keep during the next months. We have selected five startups which represent the great moment the Mexican undertaking lives and its capacity to globally climb up
ATLANTIA SEARCH
Atlantia Search is a Mexican startup which has got to democratize the access to information. Its foundational objective was that all users had the same possibility to find high quality information and in an immediate way, saving the algorithms that limit and easy the access to those contents. If any enterprise or individual needs a specialized research, an analysis or a study, the startup analyzes the information the client has requested and identifies the key points that must be searched out. This process is almost always done in a two-week period. This is not about, however, a simple searching engine, but Atlantia has exploited some concepts that identify the reliable and trustful information and they can distinguish it from the one that does not offer a real value or a use for the clients´ interests. The Mexicans have been working and giving results for about five years, but in 2018 their increase expectations can definitely place them as a reference company in the Business to Business.
ZMART
Zmart proposes to come back to the old tradition of consumption retailer but taking enormous advantage of what the new technologies offer. This is all about a company of electronic business that has been in the market for seven years; undoubtedly, it is one of the most consolidated in its sector. Zmart offers the service of electronic top up or recharge of air time. Through applications, any person or establishment can sell data packages for cellphones from any other mobile tool, even, from Facebook. Zmart can bill about two million dollars, it has more than 20.000 selling spots and its objective is about 200.000, thanks to the direct alliance between the enterprise and the small businessmen, who are the ones who finally have the capacity to give an impulse to the model. The present year will be a critical one in the accomplishment of the objective, but they count with the favor of the Mexican consumer, who has found in this service a good way to solve daily problems.
DECIDATA
It detects, monitors, and analyzes the TV campaigns in real-time to synchronize them with the digital marketing campaigns that are going in the enterprises and, this way, optimize their impact. The Mexican company helps trademarks and agencies to maximize the efficiency of their marketing campaigns, and adds value to the inventory of the media and operators thanks to the possibility to analyze data in real-time. The Mexican startup was inaugurated in January 2016 by Jean Matthieu Grappe and Cyprien Grau, and now it operates in eight countries in Latin America and in Europe. Decidata apply data and real-time to decision making in on-line and off-line marketing: it monitors all the announcements broadcasted on paid or open television with its solution inSights. It is the first multiscreen platform that allows buying Addressable TV, offering the possibility to individually (or in segmented way) reach each TV viewer, as it is digitally done.
HOMIE
Homie is the only apartment renting platform that allows to do it without the guarantee and in less than 48 hours. Its irruption in the Mexican house market has served to innovate in the sector and to offer a very practical solution through the use of technology and without necessarily having a bondsman. One of the greatest traits of the platform is the use of algorithms to identify the best tenant with the least risk percentage. Moreover, it offers an integral service that includes promotion as well as payment management and insurance for the decrease of rentals to a very competitive price in the market. At present HOMIE operates in Mexico City (Polanco, Roma, Condesa, Juárez, Cuauhtémoc, Del Valle, Nápoles, Narvarte), and it has its bets in growing zones like Santa María Ribera, Escandón, San Miguel Chapultepec and San Rafael. For a medium term objective, they work on expanding to other Mexican cities like Monterrey and Guadalajara and, even, other cities of Latin America like Bogota and Santiago de Chile.
CRONOLOGY
This Mexican startup makes ecologic paper called PAPET. The innovation consists on that for the making of this type of paper there is no need to use trees, water, or chemicals. This is about a recycled paper designed under a system that makes used bottles made of PET into mineral paper or petapel, which is biodegradable. The use of this technology allows that for each ton of paper it is not necessary to cut until 20 trees and this way 56.000 liters of water are saved and its production process is 15 % cheaper since it needs no chemical substance. It is Adrian Nava´s idea, who together with a group of youngsters from Mexico State decided to promote the project four years ago. So far, they have received the acknowledgements in several events, ISUM (International Start-Up Meeting) among them. In 2015, they represented Mexico in the world contest “James Mcguire” which is held in Miami, Florida.
