Open Innovation Challenge TSUBASA 2022: Kick-off Event and Pre-application Consultation

December 19, 2022

Last year, JICA - the main implementing agency of Japan’s ODA - awarded the joint research project “Data Collection Survey on Collaboration with Start-up Companies in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)” to Dream Incubator (DI), Brazil Venture Capital, and Dentsu. Part of the project is the Transformational Start-ups’ Business Acceleration for the SDGs Agenda (“TSUBASA”), a program aimed at discovering made-in-Japan transformative solutions that could help ease the region’s development challenges and testing innovations in JICA local operations, as well as assisting Japanese start-ups with SDG-contributing business models in their LAC ventures in cooperation with IDB Lab*.

To mark the start of this year’s “Open Innovation Challenge TSUBASA 2022,” TSUBASA 2022 Kick-off Event and TSUBASA 2022 Pre-application Consultation will be held in Tokyo, Fukuoka, and Kyoto (Japan) on December 19-20-21, 2022 respectively to provide interested parties with necessary information on the business environment of start-ups within the LAC fast-growing ecosystem and benefits of participating in the program based on actual experiences of last year's TSUBASA 2021 participants.

■ Overview of the Open Innovation Challenge TSUBASA 2022
(1) Objective:
To identify and support Japanese start-ups that develop innovative solutions, business models, and technologies to foster sustainable development and alleviate development challenges in LAC region.

(2) Target group:
· Start-ups, micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, business ventures of big companies that are incorporated in Japan;
· Offer solutions to the SDGs Agenda and development challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean economies (including pre-launch products/services);
· Selected start-ups need to be able to participate in the program scheduled for March to August 2023 (intensive engagement is expected in the first 3 months);

(3) Submission of applications starts from January 2023 followed by the selection of successful candidates in February 2023 (timeline is subject to change without prior notice).
Click here for agenda and registration (Japanese only): Link

*The innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group. Read more about IDB Lab here: https://bidlab.org/en