Startup competitions for entrepreneurs in Latin America

They include Wharton Latin American Start Up Competition and FINNOSUMMIT Challenge

If you're a startup seeking opportunities to get funded, educated or connected, startup competitions are a great resource.

Vator has been holding its own competitions, using VatorX, to find and filter for the best startups. We've had some very successful and notable winners in the past that have gone on to raise big funding rounds including Thumbtack, DogVacay, Pokitdok, Grovo, Udemy and Apartment List, to name a few.

Anyone can list their program as VatorX is one of the most comprehensive listing guides to startup competitions, challenges, accelerators and programs. Click here to list your program!

As part of our weekly series, we'll look at top competitions with big cash prizes, as well as competitions that have teed up the most promising startups, to finding popular startup competitions you need to know about. 

Here are some of the startup competitions for entrepreneurs in Latin America:

• WeXchange Pitch Competition

Description: "WeXchange Pitch Competition is a business competition that rewards the most innovative and dynamic women entrepreneur in the region, whose tech-based enterprise demonstrates a high growth potential. The competition allows participating entrepreneurs to meet investors, mentors and fellow entrepreneurs from all over the region, as well as compete for prizes that can help the growth of their startup."

Prize:

Previous winners: Gaszen

• 100K LATAM Competition

Description: "Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires (ITBA), with the support of the MIT Sloan Latin America Office, launches the 2019 Edition of the 100K LATAM Competition with the purpose of promoting the development of ventures in Latin America and the Caribbean."

Prize: $100,000 in prizes

Previous winners: qAIRa, Webio, Sigmind

• FINNOSUMMIT Challenge

Description: "FINNOSUMMIT Challenge aims to discover, promote and empower technology startups with the best talent and capacity to transform financial services and insurance in Mexico and beyond. The main objective is to promote technology-based entrepreneurship in the region and drive the finalist startups of the competition to the next level of development, giving them visibility, specialized mentoring and greater access to financing and partnerships with the most relevant players from the financial services and insurance industries."

Prize: 

Every finalist of FINNOSUMMIT Challenge Insurtech and FINNOSUMMIT Challenge Fintech for Inclusion will receive: 

• Two VIP tickets for FINNOSUMMIT Mexico on September 10th - 13th 2019 which will include attendance to the event’s VIP cocktail where key players of the Fintech and Insurtech industry are also invited. 
• The 20 selected startups will also participate in a pitch training session where they will be able to develop and improve their presentation for the FINNOSUMMIT Final thanks to the feedback received from experts of the Fintech and Insurtech ecosystem.
• The finalists will also have the opportunity to pitch their businesses on the main stage at FINNOSUMMIT Mexico.

Besides the prize received as finalist of the competition, the winning startup of the Insurtech category of FINNOSUMMIT Challenge will receive the following prizes: 

• Immersion trip to Hartford and Boston to connect with one of the most advanced Insurtech ecosystems in the world. A trip valued in USD $5,000. 
• Direct invitation to attend Selection Days at Hartford Insurtech Hub, powered by Startupbootcamp, the leading acceleration program that supports innovative companies in the insurance industry. This way the winner will pass the first selection phase of the program. 
• Recognition as the most innovative Insurtech startup in Latin America. 

Besides the prize received as finalist of the competition, the winning startup of the Fintech for Inclusion category of FINNOSUMMIT Challenge will receive the following prizes: 

• Direct invitation to attend Selection Days Startupbootcamp FinTech Mexico City, the leading Fintech acceleration and Scale program in Latin America that supports innovative companies in the financial services industry. This means that the winning startup will pass the first selection phase of the program. 
• Recognition as the most innovative Fintech for Inclusion startup in Latin America.

Previous winners: Culqi

• Wharton Latin American Start Up Competition

Description: "At the Wharton Latin American Start Up Competition we aim to connect young entrepreneurs to a powerful network of investors, mentors and venture capital professionals from leading funds investing in Latin America. As part of this initiative, WHALAC annually carries out a Startup competition where the contestants get an opportunity to pitch their business idea to an experienced panel of judges and the audience at the conference."

Prize: Win $10,000 in cash prizes and receive mentorship from established entrepreneurs

Previous winners: Not specified

(Image source: wattagnet.com)