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Historically, Latin American corporates, have been risk averse, wanting control, often family-owned, and that has been a barrier to innovation, but that is changing now, and they are more open to doing things in a new way, if for no other reason that it’s imperative to not being out-competed.
My guest today is Laura Chicurel, founder and CEO of Innova 360, a Chile-based corporate innovation consultancy that recently merged with Mexican CVC-as-a-Service firm BlueBox Ventures, to create a larger regional player for innovation services.
It comes as Latin American corporates are becoming far more innovative internally, not only starting to invest outside their core business, but acting less hermitically than they were in the past, when they were loath to even speak at the same events as competitors lest they reveal their strategies. Now, they’ve more comfortable not just speaking alongside each other at industry events, but investing together in the same startups.
We talk about how Chilean CVCs are investing in later stages than they were before, how Chicurel hopes that the merger will help position the new company in the Latam region, how corporates need to move faster and think long term, and much more.