One day in 2005, the current president of the Agency for Research and Innovation(ANII), Fernando Brum, and the then head of LATU (2005-2010) and now head of the Ceibal Plan, Miguel Brechner, were chatting while looking at the site bounded by Bolonia and María Luisa Saldún streets, adjacent to Portones Shopping. There, the three metal-walled buildings that had served as a meeting place for business events since 1994 were empty. "Something has to be done with this place, which is a breeding ground for bulls," commented one of the two. With fewer and fewer events, the venue had no activity for most of the year.
Today, a little more than ten years later, there are more than 30 software and biotechnology companies, organisations that support entrepreneurship such as the business incubator Ingenio (present since 2001), and those that joined last year such as ANII, Endeavor and the business promotion organisation Empretec.
In addition, the Chamber of Information Technologies (CUTI), the Chamber of Digital Economy(CEDU), the Technological University(UTEC) and the Ceibal Plan.
It used to be a field of teros; now it is a pole of entrepreneurship and technology, the president of Plan Ceibal, Miguel Brechner, told Café & Negocios.
The park anchor
It is almost 14 o'clock and the CEO of Genexus, Nicolás Jodal, is walking in a hurry. As he passes, he greets the director of the software company Simplifica, Armando Cardozo, whose office is in the same building, just a few metres away, separated only by a hall.
Less than a block away, and crossing a narrow street, Jodal arrives at one of the two cafeterias in the park, picks up a plastic tray and serves himself lunch, walks to the cashier and pays for his meal as if he were in a supermarket. Soon, through the glass door, Brechner enters, who is also about to have lunch.
In the canteen there is a male majority. They are between 20 and 30 years old, and with some "veterans", they share long white tables. For them, it is common to cross paths and share spaces on a daily basis with several of the main local technology leaders, such as Nicolás Jodal or Miguel Brechner.
Genexus was one of the first companies to arrive at the park six years ago, in search of a place with "green areas and without noise pollution", but which was "closer" than Zonamerica, where it was located until then, said one of the company's directors, Aníbal Gonda. The company is among the 30 software companies with a turnover of more than US$ 5 million a year according to CUTI data, works for 45 markets and has offices in Brazil, Mexico, the United States and Japan.
Shortly afterwards, Bantotal (De Larrobla & Asociados) arrived, which develops software for the financial industry and uses Genexus technology, which explains the need to be in the park. Brechner explained that both Genexus and Bantotal served as an anchor for the arrival of other companies, which develop part of the products of these two and therefore seek to be close by.
Simplifica is one of them. Armando Cardozo, its director, was working at Genexus when in 2011 he decided to start his path as an entrepreneur. The company he founded was incubated in Ingenio - which is housed in the park - and after two years he left with his own offices, with his former employer and now neighbour as his main partner. A perfect circle.
Meanwhile, Dvelop, another venture that "graduated" from Ingenio, is currently developing with Genexus technology and is working on a joint project with Bantotal, which, according to Dvelop's director, Paula Galloti, came about because they are "neighbours" in the park.
The entrepreneurial core
Ingenio is LATU's technology incubator, which for 15 years has been offering advice, infrastructure and contacts to start-ups that are selected by a committee. Some 150 start-ups have passed through the incubator, of which 42 have graduated and seven are now "tenants" of the park.
The president of LATU, Fernando Fontán, said that the addition of Ingenio, ANII, Endeavor and Empretec made the park the "core of the Uruguayan entrepreneurial ecosystem".
For the director of Ingenio, Rafael García, this has strengthened the incubator, as there is proximity to institutions such as ANII, which finances some of the incubated ventures, or Endeavor, which can support start-ups once they graduate. In addition, the proximity to technology companies helps to build relationships with entrepreneurs who are potential mentors or investors, and with whom the entrepreneurs meet on a daily basis.
Such is the case of the video game developer Trojan Chicken, which received funding from Bantotal to develop an educational game for Ceibal's computers - which is also a tenant of the park.
"In almost all the cases I know of angel investment (angel investment in early stage ventures), there is an element of face-to-face negotiation that the park facilitates," Garcia said.
Corridor conversations
For the president of ANII, Fernando Brum, being at LATU means being physically close to the beneficiaries, but it also means participating in "corridor conversations, which circulate informally between companies and organisations that promote innovation and entrepreneurship". "If there is one thing the organisations in the park have in common, it is that we like to do things together. There are not too many boundaries between those who are companies and those who are institutions. We are all working in the same direction," Brum said.
For Bantotal's Development and Innovation Manager, Fernando Panizza, one of the reasons why the company settled there was because they were looking for a place with "technological effervescence". "The daily contact between companies makes for affection and leads them to do things together. We can meet and define things in five minutes, without having to move. The cost of not seeing each other is very high," Panizza explained.
In the same vein, the director of Endeavor, Joaquín Morixe, considered that concentrating on an innovation cluster is a desirable point, because companies and institutions have stronger ties.
However, for Morixe, it is not a consolidated pole, but an evolving one: "I'm more interested in the future pole than the present one. I think it will evolve because of the geographical facilities, because of the green spaces, because people can interact outside, and because there is a concentration in technology, and that always brings together more entrepreneurship".
In the same vein, Ceibal's general manager, Fiorella Haim, said that "there is an entrepreneurial culture", with activities in which experiences are shared and where "in the common places you meet interesting people, who are thinking in terms of financing or evaluating ventures".
The future
After nine months of work, LATU's Technological Business Development Centre has added a new building: the Cincuentenario. The structure is still empty inside, with concrete walls and ceilings, waiting for the two companies that will open the building for the first time, Dvelop and Bantotal, to adapt the place to their needs.
The construction cost US$ 2 million and, according to LATU's president, was designed to meet the demand of these two companies for larger offices.
With this work completed, the occupation of the site is almost complete, Fontán said. Thinking about a possible increase in demand in the coming years, LATU acquired a 117,000 square metre plot of land, located opposite the park on María Luisa Saldún Street. The objective, according to Fontán, is to "maintain the logic of the ecosystem of companies and organisations", which is why it is important to grow in the same place.
The project does not yet have a start date, as it is still waiting for the companies that are part of the park, or wish to do so, to demand more offices and thus join a rapidly developing entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Source: The Observer
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