These entrepreneurs lead digital social innovation in Latin America
The report highlighted four success stories with high replicability potential in other regions of Latin America.
Digital social innovation represents an emerging panorama of possible solutions for the social and environmental challenges that the planet poses. And all this is led by initiatives of innovative technological entrepreneurs.
In the context of a digital economy in constant expansion, the identification of concrete examples on how it is possible to integrate the digital medium in the search for solutions to social problems is posed as a challenge for the ecosystems of entrepreneurship and social innovation, both in Europe and in Latin America.
The report "The digital revolution before the great challenges of the world", cited by Commerce and Justice, analyzes digital social innovation in Latin America, including a look at the trends of the ecosystems of entrepreneurship and social innovation and incorporates, in turn, an in-depth analysis of four good practices, as well as a compilation of the hundred most outstanding digital social innovation initiatives in Latin America that contribute to the achievement of the UN Development Goals (SDGs). According to the report, the selected initiatives have impacted a total of 64 million people, equivalent to 11% of the population of the region.
"We are seeing how a series of digital social innovation initiatives, the vast majority for profit, successfully solve the needs of society," said David Murillo, a professor at the Institute for Social Innovation at Esade and co-author of the report.
According to Murillo, the study shows that "digital social innovation is booming and the areas in which it is most impacting are improving access to education and health, and financial inclusion, through various fintech initiatives."
The report highlighted four success stories with high replicability potential in other regions of Latin America, a high level of innovation, a proven social impact, and a sustainable business model.
Cumplo (Chile, P2P marketplace lending): the largest P2P marketplace lending platform in Latin America offering an online meeting point between people who want to invest their savings and companies, mainly SMEs that need financing to grow. Founded in Santiago, Chile, Cumplo already has branches in several regions of the country and has financed more than 785 projects with $ 100,000 million through six thousand investors.
Esoko / Extensio (Mexico, agriculture): digital field agent, providing SMS, WhatsApp, and call centers critical information to more than 13,000 producers and technicians in 20 states of Mexico, to reduce uncertainties (weather, pests), apply better practices, and negotiate better deals (linkage with suppliers and markets). Their clients are public or private organizations dedicated to research, training, and generation of information for the field and interested to obtain feedback directly from the field about best practices.
Capital Foundation (Colombia, financial inclusion): an entity with a long history in financial inclusion that has integrated several digital innovations to achieve its mission of promoting global economic citizenship and scale. Its application "Lista" has had an impact proven by rigorous studies and the work of the organization has positively impacted more than five million people in the 18 countries where it works.
MGOV (Brazil, education and citizen participation): a social enterprise that develops communication and evaluation products and services for education, the evaluation of social initiatives, and citizen participation. It offers solutions for the most vulnerable populations via SMS and interactive voice responses (IVR), with specific products for education, financial inclusion, and agriculture. MGOV already has 160,000 customers, is active in more than a thousand cities, and benefits more than three million people.
