Parallel18’s pre18 program celebrates 4th generation of local entrepreneurs
Parallel18, a program of the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust, celebrated the local pre-acceleration program pre18 DemoDay for its fourth generation in which 27 companies presented their products and services as well as the achievements reached during the pre-acceleration program.
The fourth cohort, made up by 44% of female representation, worked for 12 weeks in a hybrid format that provided 15 mentorship sessions, valuable networking opportunities, and “Giveback” initiatives with the local entrepreneurial community.
Furthermore, the companies that were part of Gen. 4 are from the following industries: agrotech, e-commerce, SaaS, education, health and biotechnology, food, real estate, fintech, legal services, and more.
The 27 startups that presented their solutions to an audience made up of business partners, mentors and investors were: Abacrop, Assist787, Auditorium, Buzzzy, Candid Society, Ceyba, Citadoc, LLC., Channel, DABB, Divinissimo Gelato, Enspacio, EntrePanas, ESTHERkids, Find It, Giftfully, Hyperion, Maestros Express, Med-Fly, Meet your finance, Mente Serena, Mojito Dating, Okie Dokie Technologies LLC, Paralian LLC, RED Atlas, Spawn Camp, STREAM Technologies LLC and Temis.
“It was very exciting to see our cohort come back to the office to work on their startups while watching them grow throughout the program. Each week was very productive and brought staggering results that we witnessed during the DemoDay event,” said Juan Carlos Hernández, parallel18’s executive director.
“This is one of the programs that I value the most; because they focus on the local scene, pre18 helps the island’s entrepreneurs to scale their businesses and prepare them accordingly. Pre18 has a clear vision on closing the entrepreneurship gap and contributes on a larger scale to the business ecosystem of Puerto Rico,” said Science Trust CEO Lucy Crespo.
On the other hand, several awards were given during Gen. 4’s DemoDay. First, the GiveBack Award was granted to the Neobank Hyperion and the mental health services platform Mente Serena. Both startups achieved the greatest number of “Giveback” initiatives to the community. As part of the prize, each company will have unlimited access for up to six months to the Co.Co.Haus coworking space valued at $6,000.
Also, Abacrop, a startup that collects data for the agricultural industry, was the recipient of the Aeronet High-Speed Award, which entails a one-year internet scholarship granted by the Internet service provider AeroNet, who has been collaborating with parallel18 for several years.
Finally, the public at the Museum and the virtual transmission had the opportunity to select by electronic voting, Mente Serena and Med-Fly as the winners of the first and second place of the People’s Love Award with prizes of $2,000 and $1,000; respectively. This award was sponsored by P18 Gen. 8 alumni, Strain, as well as parallel18.
The fourth cohort of pre18 received a 12-week high quality training and a $20,000 grant to boost their startups and help them launch into the local market.
To date, 111 Puerto Rican businesses have successfully passed through pre18 and 47 of them have participated in the international acceleration program, P18.
