NEWS & INSIGHT
IAE Business School has launched a free training programme designed specifically to support and upskill Hispanic and Latino-American entrepreneurs in the US. “To accelerate the projects of Hispanic-American entrepreneurs and make them attractive for financing, it is key that the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the skills and abilities of Latino talent are developed,” explained Silvia Torres Carbonell, director of the new programme and academic director at IAE Business School’s entrepreneurship centre. The potential market is both vast and influential. If Latinos living in the US were an independent country, its GDP would have been $3.2 trillion in 2021, according to a 2023 report from the University of California, Los Angeles and the California Lutheran University. This would have made it the world’s fifth-largest economy by GDP, behind the US, China, Germany and Japan and ahead of India and the UK. Yet, a 2021 report from Bain and Company found that less than one per cent of the capital invested by US venture capital funds and publicly traded companies was in Latino-owned companies. The programme, entitled Naves USA (or ‘USA ships’), is the product of an alliance between IAE’s entrepreneurship centre and Emprender América, a company that aims to generate spaces for the training, support and development of Hispanic-American entrepreneurs. Its first edition will focus on Florida residents and runs between March and June. Topics that include business models, value proposition, commercial management, leadership and legal aspects will be covered across eight thematic blocks and 18 modules delivered online in Spanish. There will also be a business plan competition at the programme’s end, with an in-person final to be held in Miami. TBD FREE INITIATIVE SEEKS TO FUEL PROSPECTS AMONG OVERLOOKED US DEMOGRAPHIC SCHOOL : IAE Business School, Austral University COUNTRY : Argentina
To give informal workers more equal access to financial services, regardless of their background, DLabs at the Indian School of Business (ISB) has launched the Build for Billions start-up accelerator programme in partnership with the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) and Union Bank of India. India’s informal sector accounts for 90 per cent of its workforce and 50 per cent of its national income, according to an estimate from the country’s Statistical Commission. Those working in this sector of the economy are said to consist of gig workers, migrant workers, domestic workers, street vendors, carpenters, plumbers, electricians and construction labourers. These workers, as well as the informal firms that employ them, do not pay tax and tend to have difficulties in relation to the use of financial services, contributing to stagnated economic growth. On an individual level, the challenges for informal workers are myriad and include a lack of regular income, limited access to credit and fewer social security safety nets. In response, the new DLabs programme is prioritising support for enterprises that are working to alleviate these issues. The 50-day, equity-free accelerator offers mentorship, resources, networking and the chance to pitch to banks and investors. Bhagwan Chowdhry, faculty director at I-Venture@ISB, under the aegis of which DLabs operates, said: “A skilled labour force is the backbone of building a robust economy. Building and supporting finance infrastructure that can assist in the development of such a workforce should be our top priority.” RBIH CEO Rajesh Bansal further explained that the accelerator programme was “aimed at supporting visionary fintech start-ups addressing challenges faced by gig workers, migrant workers, domestic workers and others in the informal sector. This initiative holds the promise of bringing forth solutions that contribute to a more inclusive and robust financial ecosystem.” EB IMPROVING FINANCIAL INCLUSION FOR THE INFORMAL ECONOMY SCHOOL : Indian School of Business COUNTRY : India
Ambition | MARCH/APRIL 2024 | 9
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