Startup Venezuela Summit: Companies that change the world can be built in Venezuela

Photo Credit: Estefanía Salazar

The local Venezuelan entrepreneurship scene has been defined by resilience over the last 20 years. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor¹, it has persevered through conditions such as a volatile local economy, the highest inflation rate in the world, migration, and limited access to credit, among others.

Due to local circumstances, “most (...) were subsistence-based, but digital entrepreneurship was on the rise, given the growth in internet access and low operating cost compared to other economies,” according to the GEM. A relevant example is Cashea² (Venezuela´s first Buy Now and Pay Later platform, founded in 2022), which now has nearly 11 million registered users and 20,000 partner businesses across the country.

At the same time, the 8-million Venezuelan diaspora has sought to be known as entrepreneurs within its host countries. “Venezuelan entrepreneurship is also emerging as a powerful engine of job creation”, said³ the United Nations International Organization for Migration in 2025.

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“Venezuelan migrants are highly productive and bring strong technical and university-level skills that respond to labor market needs in host countries”.

A meetup for connections

Against this backdrop, the sixth edition of the Startup Venezuela Summit⁴ (SVS) brought local and international startups and investors together in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. The three-day gathering took place on October 22–24, 2026.

The SVS, first inaugurated in 2023 in Miami by Venezuelan business leader Esteban Torbar⁵, held its sixth edition at the Caracas Campus, a mixed-use building that formerly hosted the Procter & Gamble Latin America headquarters. The event hosted a dynamic mix of in-person conferences, competitions, pitching sessions, and more.

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“When we believe in our talent, build relationships of trust, and work together for a common purpose, we are capable of achieving things that seemed impossible,” asserted Torbar. “We want every young person to understand: companies capable of transforming the world can also be built in Venezuela.

The Summit was attended by more than 3,000 entrepreneurs and investors, both Venezuelans and internationals. One of them was none other than Sir Richard Branson⁶, who, back in 2019, led a charity concert for the country in the Venezuelan-Colombian frontier, but had never been to the country itself.

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“Entrepreneurs of this world will make Venezuela a great country.”

said Sir Branson at the event´s inaugural speech.

Photo credit: Startup Venezuela Summit

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“If you feel that something is not being done well, you have the basics of the business to do it better than other people (...) Take big risks, but try to protect the downside.”

Branson recommended.

The country needs greater legal security, he added. “A lot obviously depends on the next 18 months... [Venezuela will have a] tremendous (investment) opportunity once elections occur and the rule of law is established,” Branson said.

A growing network

The Summit brought together leading Venezuelan CEOs such as Adriana Cisneros⁷ (Cisneros Group⁸, a media and technology conglomerate), Ignacio Vollmer (Mercantil Bank⁹, one of the oldest banks in the country), and Horacio Velutini (INVACA, real estate group), among others.

They were joined by leading Latin American venture capital (VC) firms, who brought insights about current investing trends and possibilities for the country, such as Laura González Estéfani (TheVentureCity¹⁰), Vincent Speranza (Endeavour México¹¹), Mariano Mayer (Newtopia¹²), Juan Cruz Valdez Rojas (iThink VC¹³), and Fabiana Scionti (Valor Capital Group¹⁴).

Local startup founders such as Pedro Vallenilla (Cashea) and Diego Salas (Casa 212¹⁵ / Yummy¹⁶, a multi-service app) also had their chance to lead and participate in fruitful discussions about key topics such as value creation, artificial intelligence, mobility, and the future of fintechs.

The Summit also hosted an in-house competition for a spot in the Startup World Cup¹⁷ final, to take place next November in San Francisco, USA. Layrz¹⁸, a Venezuelan technology firm that builds a modular Internet of Things (IoT), earned the right to be at the international competition, which will grant $1,000,000 to the final winner.

University students also had a chance to present their early-stage initiatives in pitching competitions, getting further mentorship opportunities, and equity-free cash prizes.