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Puerto Rico start-ups draw investor interest in NYC

David Beatty, director of Golden Seeds, an investment firm that has invested more than $58 million in technology companies.

David Beatty, director of Golden Seeds, an investment firm that has invested more than $58 million in technology companies.

Startups of Puerto Rico held its first Puerto Rican start-ups presentation to investors in New York City Wednesday, which group officials said expressed an interest in the projects that were unveiled.

“Today [Wednesday], four Puerto Rican start-ups showed the most demanding investors in New York that entrepreneurs in Puerto Rico are able to conquer new markets through their innovations,” said Marcos Polanco, co-organizer of the event.

“The reaction was amazing. World-class investors pointed out the immense potential of Puerto Ricans start-ups. According to them, in addition to seeing Puerto Rico as a place to vacation, today they see it as a destination for business,” Polanco added.

At the event, local start-ups Blimp, Leavebox, Kytelabs and iGenApps made individual presentations to dozens of would-be investors. Among those in attendance were David Beatty, director of Golden Seeds, an investment firm that has invested more than $58 million in technology companies; Ricardo García-Amaya, leader of the only Latino angel investor network; Bob Dorf, entrepreneurship and “lean startups” guru, founder of six high-tech companies; Baris Yuksell, senior engineer at Google, based in NY; and Jorge Torres, of SILAS Capital, a major investment firms in technology in the Big Apple.

“By definition, a ‘start-up’ is a company that seeks to create a new business model. These are the companies that take a risk to create what does not exist,” Ramphis Castro, co-organizer of the event.

“Therefore they need the support of an entire business ecosystem. Yesterday, we took another big step in creating this ecosystem, exposing our best start-ups to investment networks in the United States,” he said.

Event pays off
Among the achievements of the evening, was a meeting between Kytelabs team, a start-up founded by three young Puerto Ricans 10 months ago, with K.J. Singh, “Managing Director” of accelerator TechStars.

TechStars, one of the most important start-up accelerators in the world, is a unique program where a select group of start-ups (they only support 0.6 percent of all applicants) is selected to be part of an intensive training program. At the end of the program, accepted start-ups receive, on average, $400,000 in capital investment for their company.

In addition, organizers announced that Beatty will be coming to Puerto Rico soon to learn more about Puerto Rican start-ups.

Start-ups of Puerto Rico is a factory that produces entrepreneurs who are establishing high-tech companies based in Puerto Rico.

Author Details
Author Details
Business reporter with 30 years of experience writing for weekly and daily newspapers, as well as trade publications in Puerto Rico. My list of former employers includes Caribbean Business, The San Juan Star, and the Puerto Rico Daily Sun, among others. My areas of expertise include telecommunications, technology, retail, agriculture, tourism, banking and most other segments of Puerto Rico’s economy.
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