From affordable food vending machines to a risk-taking clothing brand, the most innovative companies in Latin America.
For serving staples in the most underserved neighborhoods. When
Jose Manuel Moller
moved as a student to a poor neighborhood in the outskirts of Santiago,
Chile, a few years ago, he found himself having to buy food staples
from tiny local shops. These came in small quantities, which is
affordable on a daily basis but works out to cost much more than larger
supermarket sizes in the long run. He calls this the "poverty tax," in
that low-income families are ultimately forced to pay more for less. His
solution:
Algramo,
a vending machine that dispenses bulk staples including detergents,
rice, beans, and lentils. His company fills the vending machines and
installs them for free in small neighborhood stores, splitting profit
50-50 with shopkeepers, who can then compete with supermarkets. The
shorter supply chain cuts out the excess packaging, labeling, and
middleman, and products cost 40% less than the packaged versions on shop
shelves. Moller has installed 125 vending machines in Santiago in six
months, reaching an estimated 15,000 people. Algramo will soon expand to
Colombia, with plans to expand to all of Latin America within a decade.
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For growing a banking system in an under-the-mattress economy.
In Argentina, where spiraling inflation and widespread distrust in
banks means many people keep cash under their mattresses, the bank Banco
Galicia is bringing a new generation into the financial system. Its new
product, Galicia MOVE, launched in April for university students, and
counts 35,000 clients across Argentina so far. In a first for the
country, Banco Galicia is offering the product and all related services
100% digitally, which means users never have to go to a physical bank. A
mobile app allows users to send and receive money, administer spending,
save for special occasions, geolocate ATMs, and more. And customer
service is available through social networks. MOVE clients automatically
register with the Netherlands-based
International Student Identity Card, which offers international student benefits for cardholders, such as travel and educational discounts.
For reaching out to the previously unreachable. As
Colombia works toward peace from a half-century of armed conflict, Lowe
SSP3 Colombia is helping lead Colombian guerrillas home from the jungle.
In 2014, the well-known ad agency launched an unprecedented campaign to
share hopeful stories of demobilized FARC fighters and the lives they
now lead after deserting. The campaign, which featured print, radio, and
video spots intended to reach active revolutionaries, was launched in
December in Algeciras, Huila, a small village that has historically been
a breeding ground for FARC fighters. In previous years, Lowe SSP3’s
campaigns brought Christmas to the FARC by placing holiday trees in the
jungle, and offered a path home by sending glowing plastic balls, filled
with gifts and messages from family, down rivers that the
revolutionaries typically travel. Meanwhile, the agency also handles
large global consumer clients like Unilever.
For being global brands’ Latin American translator.
This Mexico City-based consultant is a risk evangelist—a much-needed
perspective in Latin America, where many large brands are still
marketing traditionalists. And the message has caught on. Last year,
Insitum grew 30% and opened a new office in Spain—its first in Europe
and its seventh overall. And it completed over 180 innovation projects
for more than 50 companies across Latin America, in both the public and
private sectors. Rather than introducing shiny new products for clients,
Insitum invests heavily in research and training. Months spent inside
the government of the city of Buenos Aires, for example, led to the
production of a comprehensive innovation training toolkit for city
officials, spotlighting where design thinking and improved processes
could better impact citizen experience.
For going its own way and encouraging everyone to do the same.
This clothing brand, which has 36 stores across Brazil, has a history
of brazenly turning bad PR to its advantage. When, for example, a
notorious drug trafficker was photographed wearing one of its shirts,
the company hired the guy for a campaign. And when one of its stores was
burglarized, it used the footage in ads. It has pulled out of Fashion
Week events, announcing that its clothing is made for real people. In
September, it unveiled a different kind of rebellious attitude: Its
campaign Rebels With Causes highlighted "rebels"—heads of NGOs,
transformational social organizations, and so forth—who helped their
community. And the celebration helped Reserva bring in an estimated
revenue of $79 million.
For providing safe rides in unsafe cities. It’s
dangerous to hail a taxi on the streets of many Latin American capitals,
so Tappsi was built to deliver safety as the paramount feature. It
developed its own protocols and security filters to screen every driver,
created a secure chat function so that drivers and passengers can
coordinate without exchanging phone numbers, and enables users’ family
and friends to track their taxis. The company launched in Bogotá in
2012, and now has more than 1 million users. Last year it expanded to
Peru and Ecuador.
For a natural solution to a natural problem. Chile
was hit by an 8.8 earthquake in 2010. A tsunami followed, destroying the
city of Constitución. Architecture firm Elemental was given just 100
days to come up with a master plan for the city’s reconstruction, which
would also provide protection against future natural disasters—not only
tsunamis, but also seasonal flooding. Elemental has become known in
Chile for the design of flexible and beautiful low-cost housing for
low-income families, under the idea that "the city is a shortcut to
equality." The firm works on housing, public space, transportation, and
infrastructure projects. Elemental delivered a natural solution:
planting a forest that would protect the city from future floods. The
forest would require overtaking private land along the city’s riverbank,
which created a host of political problems, but they’ve since been
resolved: Today, four years after the earthquake, the master plan is
being implemented, and Constitución will hopefully be safer for it.
For helping mom and pop run their store. Every time a
chain convenience store opens in Latin America, 35 mom-and-pop shops
disappear. That isn’t necessarily because shoppers prefer the chains,
though. As Mexico-based Virtual Market has discovered, it’s often
because small shops simply aren’t set up to compete. Virtual Market
offers these stores a free tablet-register combination that helps manage
their daily business, including features that take stock of items, make
direct product orders, process bill payments, and even process
customers’ credit and debit card purchases. In return, Virtual Market
earns commission from product companies, like Coca-Cola and Unilever,
for coordinated bulk sales. So far, 1,000 terminals have been installed;
85% of stores kept them. This year, Virtual Market hopes to expand
throughout Latin America and into Asia.
For helping even the most disconnected farmers connect with their land.
Tambero is the first free, web-based global system for dairy cattle
farming, beef cattle, and agriculture, and is used in over 150
countries. (It was developed in rural Argentina;
tambero means
"dairy farmer" in some countries in the Southern Cone, including
Argentina and Uruguay.) The software helps farmers around the globe,
even in very isolated places, use technology to improve production
yields. Users can manage animals directly from the field with a phone,
tablet, or notebook, and see comparative reports, plus use QR codes to
manage land parcels and display them with satellite images. In 2014,
Tambero launched an API that allows other agritech startups to integrate
with the Tambero platform and offer a wider suite of products. Late
last year, Facebook invited Tambero to be part of its Internet.org
program in Colombia, giving Colombians free and easy access to the app, even without a data plan.
For bringing a rare sustainable approach to mining.
This 60-year-old Chilean mining and steel holding company is being
lauded for its pioneering sustainability in, of all places, a new mine.
Its new iron-ore mining site, Cerro Negro Norte, launched in December,
and uses 100% desalinated seawater to help preserve fresh water in the
notoriously dry Atacama Desert region. It also uses solar energy for
certain hours of the day. Ore and water are transported from the mine to
the port via a concentrated pipeline instead of on roads, which means
less impact on infrastructure and the surrounding environment. According
to the company, the solar-powered plant, which will produce 4 million
metric tons of iron per year, will prevent more than 135,000 tons of
carbon-dioxide emissions annually, equivalent to removing more than
30,000 cars from the road.
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