Espacio Medellin Conrad EgusaConrad Egusa is the co-founder of Espacio (http://espacio.co/), the co-owner of Colombia Reports, and is currently a mentor at The Founder Institute.

In 2012, the Wall Street Journal and Citi announced their finalists for the most innovative “City of the Year” contest: New York, Tel Aviv, and a surprising third selection, Medellin, Colombia.
The city of Medellin, which Time Magazine 20 years ago referred to as the “coke capital of the world” and 10 years ago had a homicide rate 12 times that of Chicago, was selected as the winner.

Espacio Medellin Conrad Egusa[glossary id=’447′ slug=’unbeknownst’ /] to many, the country of Colombia is positioning itself as the Silicon Valley of Latin America, [glossary id=’448′ slug=’vying’ /] against Chile and Brazil for this title. In a country where [glossary id=’450′ slug=’bloodshed’ /] once occurred regularly, new businesses now [glossary id=’451′ slug=’fourish’ /], including a [glossary id=’452′ slug=’burgeoning’ /] tech scene.

“There is no doubt that in recent years entrepreneurship in Colombia has multiplied. Government and private initiatives have greatly accelerated this, and we continue to see Colombian technology companies receiving attention,” Colombian serial entrepreneur Alex Torrenegra told me.

The increased Latin American interest in attracting [glossary id=’454′ slug=’startup’ /] and funding venture capital funds comes at a time when investors are optimistic about the prospects of developing economies.

Read the complete article at VentureBeat.

Pictures taken from Espacio’s Facebook Fan Page.

About the Medellin Buzz

The Medellin Buzz is lighthearted news source for English as a Second Language learners in Medellin, Colombia.  The Medellin Buzz is written in a way that is easy to understand.  The difficult vocabulary words are [glossary id=’425′ slug=’highlighted’ /], you can click on the word and the definition will pop up.