Start-Up Jamaica is a key element in a strategy developed by the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining to help innovators and entrepreneurs in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean to grow their ideas into marketable products and services, thus contributing to economic growth, increasing employment, and generating foreign exchange.

Jamaican tech entrepreneurs continue to get more support from international investors as Start-Up Jamaica rolls out a second set of participants for seed funding.

What’s more, California-based accelerator company Devlabs will top the previous funding set by Jordan company Oasis500 to up to $5 million in cash and business support for each successful local start-up seeking to solve social and economic problems, whether nationally, regionally or globally.

The second pitch got underway last Thursday and saw 10 companies from Start-Up Jamaica, the University of Technology and Northern Caribbean University making five-minute pitches to Devlabs co-founders Ruben Hernandez and Jose Lopes at the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) building on Duke Street in downtown Kingston.

Devlabs incubates tech start-up companies founded by outlier entrepreneurs from small cities and rural towns around the world. It expects to select the winning companies over the next few months.

Last September, the Government and the World Bank inked a deal with Oasis500 for seed funding of up to US$30,000 ($3.48 million) for each participant under the Youth Employment in Digital and Creative Industries (YEDCI) project.

Start-Up Jamaica is a key element in a strategy developed by the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining to help innovators and entrepreneurs in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean to grow their ideas into marketable products and services, thus contributing to economic growth, increasing employment, and generating foreign exchange. [. . .]

For full article, see http://panamericanworld.com/en/article/more-international-investment-jamaican-tech-start-ups