FIU’s AVCC showcases top ventures at investor gathering in Miami

Top ventures from NewMe Accelerator, Wayra, NXTP, Startup Chile and others to present at venture conference, December 13-14, 2012

Agent Piggy, Ideame and LiveNinja lead a list of innovative companies chosen to present at FIU’s 2012 Americas Venture Capital Conference.

The two-day conference, taking place on Dec. 13th-14th at Miami’s JW Marriott Brickell, will be presented by the Eugenio Pino and Family Global Entrepreneurship Center in collaboration with the College of Business. It will kick off with Wayra’s Global demoDay on Dec. 12, hosted by The LAB Miami.

More than 100 of the region’s top entrepreneurial companies, many of whom work with leading global accelerators, applied for the opportunity to present their ventures to an audience of venture capitalists, angel investors and world-class mentors. They will compete for $70,000 in cash and in-kind prizes.

This year the conference received a record number of applicants vying for a chance to compete. Among the chosen companies are Agent Piggy, a virtual piggy bank that teaches children about financial literacy; Cine Papaya, an online and mobile platform for the sale of movie tickets in Latin America;Ideame, a crowdfunding platform for creatives in Latin America; LiveNinja, a webcam-based platform that connects users with experts in a variety of subjects; and Kairos, a facial recognition platform to identify employees clocking in on the job.

“The amount of global attention we have received, from top accelerators like NXTPLabs and Wayra, is a testament to the entrepreneurial engagement we have worked so hard to achieve this year,” said Jerry Haar, associate dean of the College of Business, director of the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center and co-chair for the 2012 AVCC Conference. “This selection process was the most competitive and difficult so far, with only one out of four applicants making the cut. The caliber of competitors at this year’s AVCC is a direct reflection of Miami and Latin America’s entrepreneurial tech boom.”

The conference will feature world-class speakers including Hernán J. Kazah, co-founder and managing partner at Kaszek Ventures and co-founder of Mercadolibre; Martín Varsavsky, Argentine tech entrepreneur, investor and founder of Viatel, Ya.com, Jazztel, and FON; and Jason L. Baptiste, CEO and co-founder of Onswipe.

“This year’s speakers bring a wealth of global technology and investment experience to Miami,” said Demian Bellumio, COO of Senzari, and the AVCC program committee member who enlisted this year’s speakers. “We are also really excited that many of the speakers have strong ties to Miami, which underscores the clear opportunity that we have to make Miami an international tech hub.”

“Thanks to our gracious sponsors like the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, TD Bank, Tres Mares Group, FedEx Express Latin America & Caribbean, Miami Downtown Development Authority (Miami DDA) and Cisneros Group of Companies, this conference is able to showcase the region’s top talent from ten different countries this year, which is the greatest diversity to date,” said Faquiry Diaz Cala, co-chair of the 2012 AVCC.

For registration information and to view the complete list of AVCC presenting companies, sponsors and media partners visit: www.avcc.fiu.edu.

To read in Spanish, click here.