Amazon’s smart virtual assistant Alexa is making its way to Mexico and is also learning Mexican Spanish along the way. It is the first Spanish-speaking country that will receive a localised voice that caters specifically for Mexican users, prior to the technology’s release in the country expected later this year. According to Amazon’s developer blog,
A new collaboration to offer debit card payment for music streaming platform Spotify Brazil has seen Brazilian fintech startup EBANX join forces with payment services company Worldline. Previously, the music streaming service’s premium subscription was limited to those in the country who had a credit card or used the boleto bancário. This is a traditional
BrainHi is the lucky first Puerto Rican artificial intelligence startup that has just been chosen to be part of San Francisco-based accelerator YCombinator. Originally part of government-funded Puerto Rican accelerator Parallel18’s fourth generation of startups, the country’s native BrainHi works as a virtual receptionist for health service providers. The startup aims to provide a service
Technology entrepreneurs in Latin America are enjoying a financing bonanza. In 2017, investment in venture capital within the tech sector reached $1 billion, double the amount of 2016, according to data from the Latin American Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (LAVCA). This trend is set to continue as international and regional investors continue to
Bolivia wants to become the Saudi Arabia of lithium. The government, led by President Evo Morales, has shelled out almost $500 million over the past 10 years with the aim of developing an internationally competitive lithium industry and profiting from the country’s vast reserves of the metal – estimated at one quarter of all lithium supplies
Founded in 2014, Bolivia Tech Hub is an early stage incubator that serves as one of La Paz’s only support systems for the city’s tech community, helping entrepreneurs to learn, develop and collaborate on new projects. From her temporary base at this year’s LatAm Internet Governance Forum in Argentina, Pamela Gonzales, co-founder of the Tech
Entrepreneurs in Chile are turning to AI to shake up the way we eat. Since 2015, a Santiago-based startup named NotCompany – or simply NotCo – has been combining Artificial Intelligence with food-science to create innovative plant-based foods, in response to the increasing strain that the meat and dairy industries are putting on the planet’s
A Mexican social enterprise is pioneering a support network for youths that have been deported from the United States. The group Hola Code aims to support predominantly younger deportees that have had to leave America and the schooling system they are accustomed to along with families and friends, for their new homes in a country
In the Andean Altiplano, beneath the expansive white salt flats in southern Bolivia, lies one quarter of the world’s lithium reserves. Since 2010 Bolivia, one of Latin America’s poorest countries, has been trying to develop a competitive lithium industry in an attempt to capitalise on the booming global lithium market, which has been fuelled by rapid advancements
The policy that requires employees to bring their own digital devices to the office is already a popular company policy across many startups in Latin America, where thriving tech ecosystems in Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Chile have grown at alarming rates over the past few years. The result has seen a demand for employees to