The first edition took place in Buenos Aires in March 2023, followed by San Pablo in August of the same year. In 2024 he arrived in Mexico City with his third edition already Bogotá with his fourth edition. And in April 2025 it will be done in Córdoba, Argentina, and will also arrive in Rio de Janeiro.
“We have as a logic, perhaps because I was entrepreneur, that The investments that we make not only remain in that, but the selected companies work with the corporationsbecause basically what we try to do is that startups can bill and basically try to shrink that famous Death Valley that very few startups have been able to go through and ended up disappearing shortly from their foundation. And we do that throughout Latin America, in Mexico, Argentina, including Brazil, ”he explains -in dialogue with Scope– Antonio Peña, Managing Partner of Overboost, a startup accelerator that develops and manages entrepreneurial assistance programs, such as the Kamay Ventures fund.
This fund is in investors to Coca Cola Latin America, Grupo Arcor, Grupo Bimbo, IDB Lab and the International Development Financial Corporation of the United States. Has in your wallet 17 startups from different countries in Latin America, although they are mostly Argentine. Plans to add another 10 ventures throughout 2025.
“It always seemed to us that one of the things that was missing or that was also needed was Have an event to try to start making links between corporations and startupsso that they knew and can understand the corporate that there are technology companies with which they can work together. And so the idea of organizing Kamay Code was born, ”Peña added.
“All part of a call in which Five challenges are established that we define together with the corporations, who are looking for startups that can offer a solution to these challenges that corporate need to solve. During the Kamay Code, which lasts two days, startups are selected in each of these challenges that then work together with corporate executives to prepare a concept test. The idea is that the entrepreneur or the startup take a document that says what development will be, what will be done, how progress will be measured, among other things. This also helps us, because We discover startups in which we would like to invest and that they already work with these corporations, ”explains Peña about the operation of the event.
Journalist: Kamay Ventures already has a portfolio of 17 startups. How is it composed?
Antonio Peña: Basically today we have a quite interesting portfolio from different countries in Latin America. We also have a Portuguese company that came to Latin America that is like a Amazon Go.
We have Fintech as the Ecuadorian Startup alternative scoring Altscore, which has just lifted its series A with a round of 8 million dollars. Others who have just lifted their series A, such as kilime, which is a Cordoba company dedicated to water savings issues, which works with Coca-Cola in several countries.
Also two Argentine agtech. One is Auravant, which is now raising its series A, and also operates in Spain. And the other is Wiagro, which makes spears to measure moisture and also monitor the silobolsas.
Another is the Argentine Fintech of INI payments, which not only develops payment solutions, but tries to democratize payments including places where there is no connection.
Then we have Aerialoop, an Ecuadorian drone company, but with a characteristic that they are drones that travel from end to certain tours, to make gas pipeline monitoring, among other uses.
On the Kamay Ventures website you can find the detail of all startups included in our portfolio.
Q: Do you intend to add more companies this year?
AP: Last year we closed the fundraising of the fund. We have 13 more investments for the fund, that is, this year it will be a very active year. The goal we have is to add between 8 and 10 startups. First of all we are constantly doing scouting, we do not make calls to searches, but we are constantly looking for startups and we are very active in making our events, participating in entrepreneurial events and we are constantly seeing where to find projects. My partner and I, for having been entrepreneurs before investors, have a lot of relationship with the ecosystem and then that project pipeline always comes to us.
We move with seven verticals to invest, precisely because they are areas where we know that we can later invest but also accelerate startups, following the trends or needs of our investors a little.
Q: How much is the average investment amount in startups?
AP: We start in full pandemic. We are currently on a ticket between 500 thousand and 600 thousand dollars in seed capital (Seed), but sometimes we do follow on, that is, we try to follow some interesting investment especially because it is a good way that we see also to give support to support This startup in its evolution stage. Then we also have part of capital for that segment of interesting companies.
Q: What are the most active verticals today?
AP: When Kamay was born we did a very intensive job with the corporate to understand where the true PANS were, the strategic needs of the company. Because many times it happens that corporate invest in things that are not related to what they do, and although sometimes that can go well, it ends up separating from the company because there is no interest.
So what we try to do is a job of looking for these “Champions”, as we say, in different verticals. And there we define different verticals that range from everything that is Fintech, Logistics and Distribution, Digital Commerce, New Sales Modalities, Internet of Things. And we are seeing now some Biotech things that are difficult to achieve, but that we rely a lot on our corporations. And also artificial intelligence, which is something that crosses all other verticals.
Q: Which ones stand out at this time?
AP: Just as in a moment everyone made Fintech products, now there are many entrepreneurs doing Biotech. Generating enzymes of fungi, oatmets. They have their longer maturation times, especially in the scientific part, to understand that the product is approved and all that kind of thing. What we look most is that then these startups can ensure a volume so that these corporations as large as coca or arcor can make that an exponential growth product.
But we are impressed with the level of food and biotech things that are making scientific and non -scientific entrepreneurs throughout Latin America.
Q: And what is happening with artificial intelligence?
AP: On the side of artificial intelligence we are seeing something we have never lived. I think we are really facing a paradigm shift like when Internet changed our lives to all because there began to be a new form of communication, which seems to me that it did not happen with Blockchain because it is something more complicated; It is interesting but it is more than a niche, my mother or the little boy on the other side does not know how to do it. On the other hand, with artificial intelligence, what happened to the mobile phone also happens, what happened to the Internet and is that we are really seeing a paradigm shift.
There will be many startups that taking advantage of these technology highways can help companies innovate extremely fast and I think we are going to live, especially this year and the one that comes, a dynamic of really paradigmatic intelligence startups.
Source: Ambito
