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Guatemala's entrepreneurial ecosystem is young and fragmented into disconnected clusters. According to the Index of Dyanmic Entrepreneurship, Guatemala ranks on 63rd position of out 64 countries. This report aims to capture and discuss the state and culture of the Guatemalan ecosystem to contribute to building a vibrant entrepreneurial environment.
As part of the Action Research Project, the report analyses the entrepreneurship context in Guatemala and recommends solutions to the identified gaps. For instance, the website startupguatemala.org was created as a centralised source of information relating the ecosystem in order to make resources more easy to find. Another example is the Female Founders Club, which was created to increase the representation of women in the ecosystem and provide a space to exchange experiences and knowledge.
Access to investment is one of the main challenges of the Guatemalan entrepreneurial ecosystem. Paradoxically, entrepreneurs often feel there is no capital, and investors often feel there are no startups worth investing in. Nevertheless, it is crucial for investors to diversify to reduce the risk but in an ecosystem where many are traditional small and medium enterprises, it is not easy to find a diverse range of startups. Within the Action Research Project, the startup investors' association CAPCA (Capital of Central America) was formed to promote local investment and provide data on local startup investment.