Innovate Peru Works with AWS CloudStart to Encourage a Culture of Innovation Across Peru

Innovate Peru, an agency of the Ministry of Production in Peru, is collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) CloudStart program to develop solutions to promote the growth of the startups and local businesses.

Innovate Peru has helped more than 400 businesses in Peru grow since it began its Startup Peru competition in 2014. Startup Peru is a program that encourages innovation and diversifies the country’s economy that invests over S/5 million annually into startups through competitions held twice each year.

In 2019, 80 businesses will be awarded S/50K – S/140K each to invest in their businesses. They also receive coaching and mentoring provided by startup incubators at leading universities and venture investment firms across Peru.

Through a new collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Innovate Peru will also provide access to AWS Promotional Credits and training to all startups selected for the cohort that starts in April 2019.

Pamela Antonioli, Director of Innovation at the Ministry of Production, said: “The government plays an important role in the startup ecosystem. The funds provided have helped not only the Peruvian startups, but also encouraged other stakeholders in the ecosystem to initiate relations with startups. This year we want to further develop the linkage amongst all the stakeholders and to further promote private investment in a way that complements the effort that the public sector is and has been making.”

Innovate Peru and AWS met with leaders of 15 incubators financed by the Ministry of Production to coach the winners of the 7th generation of Startup Peru that is taking applications now. To encourage a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship throughout Peru, over 20% of the startups selected have been outside of the greater Lima area, and there are incubators across the country.

The majority of the startups supported by these incubators are developing solutions in the areas of education, biosciences, agriculture, finance, healthcare, and transportation. During the Innovate Peru and AWS CloudStart kickoff meeting, incubator leaders learned how AWS cloud services such as machine learning and artificial intelligence could be used by their startups.

A separate workshop was held for one of the incubators, UTEC Ventures, the entrepreneurship department for the Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología, where members of different startups had the opportunity to learn about cloud computing and ask specific questions related to their businesses. One innovative edtech startup plans to use AWS machine learning/artificial intelligence and analytical tools to determine which video tutorials are most helpful to their students to improve their training success.

Visit the AWS CloudStart webpage to learn how the program is helping organizations around the world start their journeys to the cloud.