As a result of many in the population being descendants of immigrants, resilient, living through constant economic crises every 10 years or so, and used to doing a lot with little; many Argentines are natural entrepreneurs. “Argentines carry the entrepreneurial gene in their DNA,” said Alejandro Mashad, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of San Andrés.
The average Argentine business person has a university education, is around 30 years old, and has had at least one work experience as an employee. This makes the business scenario encouraging since this profile shows a high degree of training and some experience in the labor world before launching their own company. Despite this favorable scenario, the Argentine entrepreneur creates his/her company as a means of self-employment and does not see it as a productive unit with prospects of the capital increase, with 65% of Argentine startups having no employees.
In an effort to inspire those who have the ambition to start their own business, and scale them to new heights, Argentina Reports has put together a list of 20 Argentine entrepreneurs and argentine-based companies, who have stood out in the nation’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. They are a reference to show that with vision, passion, and hard work, great business results can be achieved in the country of Argentina.
Verónica Silva, Founder and CEO of Apprendo
Apprendo is a technological initiative that connects private tutors with students in all kinds of subjects, including offerings such as classes, courses, languages, programming, musical instruments, workshops, etc.
The initiative arose when its founder, an Argentinian national, needed a tutor to reinforce her knowledge, but her online search was not yielding results.
Verónica is a technology entrepreneur in education and social impact, with a university background in Marketing, Business Administration, and Business Analytics.
During her time in the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, she’s given back as a speaker at conferences for NGOs, companies, and institutes, both for professionals and for young people and teenagers.
Tomas Giovanetti, Founder, and CEO of TGA
TGA is a startup dedicated to the development of corporate and social video games.
Its objective is to create communication bridges to transmit content between companies, institutions, and their communities.
They have commercial operations in Spain, the US, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Peru.
The young Argentinian started his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 16, and today at 23, he has been a speaker worldwide at more than 120 entrepreneurship conferences and has told his story to media such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, CNN, Yahoo Finance, and MIT Tech Review.
Tomas has been a mentor in the Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship 2021 initiative at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and has also been a member of the teaching team of speakers in the HR Innovation Program 2021 offered by the UCEMA University and VDH.
Ignacio López, Co-Founder of Wormhole IT
Wormhole IT is an online video conferencing software company designed to serve areas where there are not enough resources to afford the high prices of this type of traditional software and all that it entails, such as expensive broadband or challenges like programming exclusively in English.
With a loading time of fewer than 30 seconds, low bandwidth, and a third of the cost, or less, of products of the same category offered by the US—Wormhole IT has consolidated itself as an accessible software that is currently used by more than 30,000 users, in more than 1,000 companies, and in more than 10 countries.
With his platform, Ignacio is contributing to education without incurring travel expenses or costs for additional equipment.
Adriana Marina, Founder of Animaná
Animaná was born from the premise of change in the fashion industry, which will manifest itself through a platform of well-being for all.
The brand believes in conscious consumption, sustainable production processes, and timeless and durable designs.
Animaná unites ancestral weaving techniques with contemporary designs using natural fibers to create sustainable luxury products.
Adriana is a change-maker and social entrepreneur, working for a sustainable and inclusive world through collaboration, promoting sustainability in the fashion world, with a strong focus on research and education projects, to better understand the industry and its problems, and find comprehensive solutions to create the new paradigm of the sustainable fashion industry.
Demian Brener, Founder of OpenZeppelin
Demian is an entrepreneur aware of the economic peaks and valleys in his native Argentina.
With the aim of alleviating the financial worries of his compatriots, Damian decided to found OpenZeppelin; a blockchain platform where it is allowed to develop and host secure transactions with which he intends to promote economic freedom of its users.
OpenZeppelin is also a cybersecurity company, which develops tools for programmers and companies to create decentralized and secure applications using blockchain.
According to Demian, Blockchain technology enables the creation of a new global, open, and digital financial system that will empower people.
Diego Saez Gil, Co-Founder of Pachama
With a background in creating startups such as Bluesmart and WeHostels, Diego adds Pachama to his list of successful companies he has created.
Pachama is a startup working to help restore nature while simultaneously contributing to solving the havoc that climate change is wreaking on the world.
The company does this through the technologies it is developing to bring confidence, transparency, and efficiency to the forest carbon market.
To do this, they are combining machine learning on satellite and LiDAR data to accelerate forest carbon verification and increase the flow of capital from companies seeking to achieve Net Zero to projects that protect and restore forests around the world.
Carolina Bouzo, Founder of Pequeños Viajeros
This startup is a subscription service committed to helping children develop their multiple intelligences and stimulate their creative confidence and problem-solving skills through fun and enriching experiences, from hands-on projects to media and content.
Carolina was interested in education and learning since she was a child, however, she decided to study actuarial science and business administration when she grew up.
Her profession led her to travel all over Latin America, settling for a considerable time in Brazil. Sometime later she decided to return to Argentina and set up her own business which included her childhood interests.
Pablo Orlando, Co-Founder of Settle Network
Settle Network solves the challenges of accepting and making payments globally.
Settle runs on top of a powerful layer of fintech and compliance digital infrastructure that leverages the liquidity of digital assets and local currencies to allow for cross-border payments in a seamless manner.
Pablo loves to build products and performance-driven teams that are committed to the success of the company.
He’s deeply engaged with decentralized protocols, digital currencies, and exchanges, according to his social media profiles.
Over the years, Pablo has launched multiple successful startups all of which focus on combining and improving connectivity for the public — from Avenida, coined the ‘’Amazon.com of Argentina” to building the first autonomous car in Latin America.
Matias Viel, Founder of Beeflow
Matias’ company Beeflow utilizes biotechnology to serve farmers to improve the performance of the pollination process of plants.
The company is dedicated to providing improved pollination services, in a global context of declining bee populations.
With a team of scientists specializing in pollination and bee health, the company claims it can increase the yield of more than 30 crops in Argentina by 10-80%.
Beeflow’s pollination service also increases beekeepers’ income.
The hives are transported and sheltered in the fields within scientific standards to avoid any sanitary problems. Science-based solutions are also being developed with respect to pollination efficiency and bee health.
Sisters Agostina and Antonella Mazza, Founders of MAZZ
Sisters Agostina and Antonella Mazza, Founders of MAZZ
Mazz was born as an e-commerce company that gradually added points of sale in makeup studios and multi-brand stores.
The brand was created for women who study, work, and have children, and cannot spend a thousand hours applying makeup, and rather comes from the frame of mind that makeup should be easy, fast, and, above all, practical.
These sisters from Tucumán — one an architect and the other a graduate in Business Administration — are curious and passionate about the world of makeup.
They complement their knowledge and experience with the dream of creating a brand that provides the modern and functional products that women of all ages are looking for.
Facundo Noya, Founder of Ebers
Facundo is passionate about innovation and medical technology.
With his innovative startup, he is helping diabetics prevent the amputation of their lower limbs, thanks to a smart insole that detects the early appearance of wounds and ulcers on the user’s feet.
Ebers insoles have pressure sensors along the entire sole of the foot, with greater concentration in the areas of the sole where the most pressure is usually exerted when walking.
Thus, with each step, the insole collects pressure data from these points and compares them with the user’s normal pattern.
This comparison makes it possible to detect any deviation caused by the inadvertent presence of a foreign object before it causes an injury or the incipient appearance of an ulcer.
Mateo Salvatto, Founder of Háblalo
Háblalo is a technology project for society that is already helping more than +200,000 people around the world.
The multi-tool is designed to assist deaf people, people with cerebral palsy, ALS, ASD, or any disability that affects communication, 100% free and without internet connection.
With the conviction of being able to impact the world in a useful and direct way, Mateo, with a passion for technology and his studies in electronics, decided to launch Háblalo and years later decided to take his project to a larger scale, founding Asteroid Technologies, a technology startup dedicated to the development and support of free projects that improve the quality of life of people.
Andy Clar, Founder of SUPER
SUPER is an agency headquartered in Buenos Aires with offices in Miami, São Paulo, Lima, Mexico City, and Santiago. The company connects brands with their audiences, understanding them in depth from metrics, and rational and attitudinal variables to find clusters and execute offline and online campaigns.
Founder Andy is an inspiration for the female audience and a reference in the entrepreneurial world. Within her professional profile, she is a TV host, entrepreneur, and writer.
Some of her recognitions for which she has been awarded are Open TV Awards in NYC for creativity and innovation in television; Mujer Emprendedora, awarded by the University of Palermo de Buenos Aires; Makers of entrepreneurship of the group La Nación; and Obrar ORO best public good campaign.
She is the author of the bestselling book “Chicas en NY. ‘Los secretos mejor guardados de la Gran Manzana’” and “Chicas de viaje por el mundo”.
Máximo Cavazzani, Founder of Etermax
Etermax is an international video game development company founded in 2009 with offices in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Berlin, and Mexico.
The company seeks to fuse technology and creativity to connect active communities, with its most popular creations Preguntados and Apalabrados.
Máximo was an amateur computer programmer as a teenager, before graduating in software engineering at the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires.
While still a university student he developed iStockManager, the first free stock trading application, which was an immediate success and was bought by the U.S. brokerage TD Ameritrade; with the profits from this business, Maximo founded Etermax.
Lara Pizarro, Founder of Hexar
At Hexar, learning is transformed so that each person can unfold his or her potential.
They design educational video games and playful digital experiences to teach science and provide the key skills of today and tomorrow.
Lara is a young women’s rights activist and a socio-technological entrepreneur dedicated to unfolding youth’s potential, and building critical citizenship through learning, changing, and doing.
Her vision is to make each young person a global citizen and a committed change maker.
Sergio Acuña Sotillo, Regional Manager for Latam of Amberlo
Amberlo transforms your law firm into a high-performing digital organization with its lawyer-friendly, cloud-based law firm management platform.
The platform helps to onboard new clients, manage matters, track all activities, issue invoices, and manage client documents and correspondence in one place.
Sergio holds an MBA with a minor in E-Commerce and Revenue Management, with a degree in Industrial Engineering. He works to help innovate the legal management industry and foster business acceleration through his experience of more than five years in multinational companies such as Alicorp, BAT, and Nestle.
Clara Bullrich, Co-Founder of TheVentureCity and Ola Guild Games
TheVentureCity is a female-founded VC who believes that founders and ecosystems have no zip code, and are here to make a difference for those specific communities. At TheVentureCity, the world’s minorities are the majority, and thinking outside the box is the norm, not the exception.
Ola Guild Games is bringing financial inclusion to 530M people in the Hispanic Market by building an all-inclusive virtual economy where members are empowered to make a sustainable living and drastically improve their quality of life with Play-To-Earn.
Clara Bullrich is Managing Partner of Guggenheim Partners Latin America / LJ Partnerships, a leading independent family office with $5 billion in assets under its management. She is currently a co-founder of The Venture City portfolio. Clara has also participated in more than 50 NFT and cryptocurrency deals and is on the board of Liquid Meta, a decentralized finance infrastructure and technology company.
Manuel Beaudroit, Co-founder & CEO at Belo
The startup was founded in 2020 with the goal of giving people control of their future. Belo is a digital wallet that allows its users to move between Argentine pesos and cryptocurrencies, in a simple and intuitive way so that their money is worth more every day, aiming to turn these transactions into an everyday experience.
Belo believes in people’s potential to accomplish everything they propose because they know there are better ways to achieve it.
Before creating Belo, Manuel served as Chief Marketing Officer at Bitex, and as Digital Marketing Operation Leader for P&G Latam, NA, and Iberia, at Accenture. He is a disseminator and speaker on topics related to bitcoin and blockchain.
Laura Apel, Vice President of Marketing, Mitto
Mitto is a leading provider of omnichannel communication solutions worldwide which has just announced its arrival in Argentina.
The startup supports the growth of technology-enabled enterprises in need of enabling and deploying instant messaging channels. Mitto’s platform offers easy-to-integrate SMS APIs, voice and chat applications, next-generation enterprise messaging, and end-to-end phone number management—ensuring that the world’s largest mobile brands and operators are ready for what’s next.
Laura Apel has more than a decade of B2B marketing experience and specializes in optimizing results-driven strategies for high-growth technology companies.
Alejandro Malgor, Co-Founder at Xinca – EcoShoes
This startup was founded seeking to generate a positive impact on society, which is why two of the most important objectives in Xica are to generate social and environmental impact.
For the company’s fulfillment, its footwear is made with recycled rubber from car tires and with the reuse of fabrics from different origins, reducing the demand for natural resources.
For his impeccable work as an entrepreneur in search of impacting society positively, Alejandro has obtained multiple recognitions from different media such as Forbes Argentina which named him as one of the 30 promises of the country in 2017, or the World Economic Forum when it chose him to be part of the Young Global Leaders of 2018.
Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
