IDB Lab and Google Call for Women STEM Entrepreneurs

Deadline: 31 March 2023
Open to: startups with at least one woman in the founding or leadership team
Benefits: travel and lodging expenses covered for the event

Description

IDB Lab, the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, and its WeXchange platform, which promotes the growth of women entrepreneurs in technology from the region, announce the launch of a new call for applications to connect the most innovative and dynamic women entrepreneurs in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in the region with potential opportunities for access to financing.

This new edition of the WeXchange Women STEMpreneurs Competition will select fifteen startups with a co-founder or a woman on their leadership team with technology at the heart of their product or service. In addition, they must be based and operating in at least one country in Latin America or the Caribbean and be in the phase of raising financing from pre-Seed to Series B rounds.

This event will take place at IDB Lab Forum, the premier innovation event of the IDB Group’s.

Eligibility

Startups with at least one woman in the founding or leadership team (C-suite).
Startups that are actively raising capital from seed rounds to series A/B or planning an investment round within the next 3 months.
Startups with a high technological component or where Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are key pieces, to includes sectors such as fintech, edtech, agtech, healthtech, biotech, e-commerce, transportation/mobility, logistics, digital security, cleantech, tourism, SaaS for SMEs, among others.
Legally incorporated startups with headquarters and operations in at least one country in Latin America or the Caribbean. Startups with highly scalable business models at a regional/global level and high potential for social and/or environmental impact.
Based and operating in at least one country in Latin America or the Caribbean.

Benefits

15 women-led startups will be selected to travel to Bogota to pitch their business to investors and key innovation ecosystem players from Latin America and the Caribbean, on June 13th and 14th, during the WeXchange Forum 2023. This event will take place at IDB Lab Forum, the premier innovation event of the IDB Group.
In addition to participating in the WeXchange Forum, the selected woman entrepreneurs and their teams, will participate in one of Google for Startups’ flagship programs -the Startup Academy- a micro-acceleration program with workshops, keynotes and one-on-one mentoring sessions; that will connect them with experts in technology, digital marketing, leadership and fundraising.
The first part of this bootcamp (80%) will be held virtually, and the remaining 20% will be held in person in Bogota, in the days leading up to the WeXchange Forum. The bootcamp is divided into blocks by topic, and all relevant members of the company are invited to participate in each block.
The prize of this call includes travel and lodging expenses for the female founder/co-founder or director (C-suite) of the company, who will be pitching.