Activa-CATIE: an innovation and technology laboratory to strengthen rural enterprises

• Activa-CATIE seeks to consolidate a platform to implement incubation programs in different areas of the rural sector that contribute to the creation and strengthening of new enterprises for sustainable development.

August 16, 2020. Activa, an innovation and technology laboratory of CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) for rural development, was created in 2020 with the support of the Development Banking System (SBD, its Spanish acronym) and has delivered more than USD 250,000 in seed capital distributed among more than 20 Costa Rican enterprises related to agriculture, livestock, ecotourism and community tourism, forestry and technology, among others.

Activa-CATIE emerged as part of the project "Developing sustainable forestry models and links to private financing" (known as the Secondary Forests project) of the Center's Forests and Biodiversity in Productive Landscapes Unit, whose objective was to create profitable secondary forest management models that would help generate productive restoration processes, reduce deforestation and generate a green economy in Central America.

Currently, the laboratory operates through resource mobilization; search and selection of new ventures; coaching and training; granting of non-refundable seed capital; impact measurement; and broad vision.

Through the mobilization of resources, value proposals are presented to donors and investors that, later on, allow for the constant mapping of entrepreneurships in the rural sector through open calls and hackathons. Once these businesses are selected, they are provided with specialized training and mentoring for the successful execution of the seed capital provided.

As part of Activa-CATIE's commitment to the implementation of incubation programs that contribute to sustainable development, the selected ventures must be focused on decarbonization and generate environmental, social and economic benefits. Thus, supporting the efforts for an authentic rural, green and inclusive development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

"The experience we have had so far, supporting different people throughout the length and breadth of Costa Rica, has been very interesting because the capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship that exists in the country is impressive and especially in the rural sector where support opportunities are generally scarce, so we hope to continue contributing directly to inclusive green development as demanded by CATIE's mission, with new rural business incubation programs, not only in Costa Rica but in other countries in the region," said Vladimir Valera, director of Activa-CATIE.

Due to the success of the laboratory in activating diverse Costa Rican entrepreneurs, last June of this year the third call for applications was launched to provide financial resources and training to the best business proposals in the rural sector, with a total of 784 applications (55% submitted by women and 45% by men).

For this occasion, three application categories were considered: prototyping (new venture ideas), start-up (businesses with less than three years of operation) and dynamic ventures (ventures with high potential for rapid growth).

Once the call for proposals was closed, those interested took part in two training workshops, which provided them with the necessary tools to prepare their ideas or business models to be presented in the final phase, where the 30 best proposals will be selected. The selected ventures will receive between 6 and 9 million colones in non-refundable seed capital, as well as advice from experts for the development of their businesses.

If you want to learn more about the work of ACTIVA-CATIE and the supported ventures, we invite you to visit their website: activa.catie.ac.cr