Volcano Innovation Summit - Rooted to Rise

This year, the Volcano Summit carried the theme ‘Rooted to Rise’, a call to return to the roots and the essence of what we want to build in the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in Central America. It was not only about Guatemala, but rather a regional message: grounding what has already been achieved and connecting with what defines our context and opportunities.

A constant throughout the event was the growing participation of corporates in conversations about venture capital, innovation, and opportunity generation. This bridge between startups, investors, and corporates was evident in panels, presentations, and parallel gatherings..

The Growing Role of Corporate Venture Capital (CVCs)

CVCs (Corporate Venture Capital) are not new in Latin America, but they are increasing their weight within the venture capital ecosystem, much like family offices.

A CVC differs from a traditional venture capital fund in that it has a strong strategic focus and seeks to align the value generated by the startup with the parent corporation. Its goal is to attract startups or technology-based companies capable of solving structural or strategic problems for its operations. To achieve this, each corporation chooses different paths: some start with venture client schemes (becoming clients of startups before investing), while others begin directly with investment and later formalize collaboration agreements.

What matters is that, while a traditional venture capital fund aims to maximize financial returns (a cycle that can take up to 10 years and whose objective is to reinvest capital and multiply investor contributions), a CVC combines that financial return with a strategic return in the short and medium term. In other words, they expect the innovation they fund to also solve internal corporate needs and provide tangible value to their core business in the short and medium term.

The private CVC gathering organized by WinVest was key to confirming this dynamic. The central conclusion: the strategic carries more weight than the exponential. This makes it clear what kind of value CVCs seek to receive and, in turn, gives venture capital funds a clearer path to deliver it—especially since CVCs often act as limited partners in VC funds.

Volcano, a must-stop for the regional ecosystem

Volcano Summit has established itself as a must-stop for the ecosystem of Central America and the Caribbean. The event has managed to attract people from different parts of Latin America and beyond, interested in understanding how the regional ecosystem is being built. 

More than just an event, it has become a space to share knowledge, foster connections, and catalyze opportunities in the region. For us, participating in Volcano was extremely important, as well as taking part in complementary gatherings such as:

• The private CVC gathering by WeInvest
• The Invarientes session, with strategic discussions on investment.
• The CAPCA miser, which enabled closer networking

For us, each of these spaces offered the opportunity to connect one-on-one with attendees and strengthen strategic relationships, consolidating Volcano as an epicenter of interaction among founders, investors, corporates, and key ecosystem players.