Last year we talked about the emerging potential in Peru’s ecosystem of startups, one of the most powerful representatives in the Latin American stage, in spite of such obstacles as the lack of a strengthened community or shortages in terms of instruments and internal funding networks.

We were also highlighting local initiatives that were boosting the process, such as the arrival of Wayra as an element to revitalize the local industry and foster those enterprising ideas that needed successful models to take the big step.

Nowadays, Peruvian technological startups are coming up and growing stronger. They are worth to be put on the map due to pertinence of their ideas and their target business niches. Wayra has played a leading role in most of them, by providing support.

DeluxeBox

Created by Lourdes Pinillos, the ecommerce platform aims at the popular business of online communities dedicated to trying out beauty products and personal care.

What’s its target market? In Peru nearly 1 percent of cosmetic-related transactions can be done on the Internet, a USD 22 M potential market in that country.

The successful startup offers samples of different products that can be tried out and then bought at the online store. As for brands, it represents a promotion and distribution channel, as well as a direct feedback source on consumers’ opinions expressed through the online community.

Duhem

Created by Lucía Valencia, it’s a crowdfunding virtual platform for social, ecological and environmental projects. Furthermore, it stands as an interaction space for the socially-responsible Peruvian and Latin American community interested in these matters.

What’s its target market? It aims at a growing niche in Latin America that is gaining momentum. It tries to promote a sustainable and solidary lifestyle and establish a link with the consumption.

By means of this platform, consumers have access to products socially-designed that meet all buying expectations. The project was recently handpicked as one of the 16 most outstanding startups when it comes to Devising Solutions to Improve Lifestyles, an initiative fostered by the Inter-American Development Bank.

The entrepreneur had already been acknowledged as the Innovator of the Year, during the first edition of the MIT Technology Review awards held in Peru.

E Lock

The project was conceived by three students from the Enterprising Center at San Ignacio de Loyola University  (USIL), Marco León Cáceres, Gabriela Peña Yacarine and Cristina Meza Barrenechea. It was chosen among over 5 thousand projects from 250 universities and institutions of the country. The solution puts on the table a smart padlock with Bluetooth technology, which can be opened by using the signal of a mobile device or smartphone, instead of the traditional keys.

What’s its target market? It’s actually one of those perfect ideas for a common daily problem: many people have lost keys of padlocks. The smart padlock is activated by the signal emitted by a smartphone, once the application has been downloaded, so users don’t have to break those padlocks if their keys get lost or stolen.

JoinnUs

Put out by  Carolina Botto BarDomingo Seminario Alfredo Granda (who is not presently working on the project), the startup hopes to reinvent the experience of discovering what to do in the city.

What’s its target market? It mainly aims at digitally-active people (presence in social networks, use of smartphones, ecommerce) that live in cities and are also interested in sociability, group cultural activities, so as to discover what’s new at the city. After having validated the business model in Lima, the main cities of the region, such as Santiago, Bogota and Mexico DF, are the main objective.

YoPublico

The founder, Carsten Korch, is a Danish entrepreneur that has fell in love with the Peruvian culture and has developed different projects in the country. Along with the startup that digitalizes books to be marketed on the web, he has also created popular  LivingPeru.com y Peru this WeekPeruExperience.com and he is a partner of one of the most famous companies in the region: Cinepapaya

What’s its target market? In Peru, two out of every one hundred authors has the opportunity to publish and sell their work by means of a publishing company. The startup helps authors digitalize and distribute their works on the largest online stores of the world, an option to considerably increase their incomes.

The service takes such contents as books, music, movies and pictures to digital formats, publishes and distributes them throughout its global network of online stores that include Amazon, atunes, Barnes &Noble, Spotify, Deezer, Netflix, GettyImages.