8 entrepreneurial projects were the winners of the 1st edition of “Costa Rica Open Future” that brought together more than 150 different projects. The winning teams were submitted to a rigorous jury with extensive experience in the field of entrepreneurship. The winners included young people and adults, most of them college students who presented solutions in fields such as agriculture, security, health, and the commercial area.
The 40 selected projects went through a 1st selection phase, in which a jury made a review and listened to the presentation of each of the participating groups. This process was supported by 18 professors from different careers and programs of the “Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica” (TEC), together with members of the Institutional Commission of the Entrepreneurs Program.
A total of 153 projects were registered, from all over the academic centers, including those that participated in the classificatory fairs at the San Carlos Regional Headquarters and the San José Academic Center. Out all of them, 40 classified in the final phase, 3 by the San José Academic Center, 5 by the Regional Headquarters of San Carlos, and 32 in the Central Campus, Cartago.
The category “New technologies” consisted of 13 projects, some of the ideas were:
UpShopping; it is an express methodology that offers the customer different options of affiliated supermarkets, their products and offers, without having to leave home.
Orthopedic Electronic Wristband (M.O.E) is another of the projects, which is capable of fighting carpal tunnel disease.
Imoving allows its users to announce the sale or rent of a specific property. The application displays a map with signs to all the properties for rent or sale, differentiated by color, contact information of the owner and photos of the place.
In the category “Eco-friendly products and services”, there are projects such as:
Pavimentos Verdes aims to supply “green” asphalt with high-quality standards and competitive conditions for environmental sustainability to construction companies that provide services to public and private institutions. This contributes to the development and improvement of roads in Costa Rica.
Banapack focuses on the area of biodegradable materials for implementation in the food industry. Using banana stalk, short-lived containers will be created for storing food, such as fast foods. This product aims to give better management to this waste of the banana industry and thus reduce the consumption of cardboard, paper, and conventional plastic.
Within the “Innovative products and services” category, there are 14 projects:
Flipcr.comOne is of the winners is called and consists of an e-cloud platform that allows you to print all kinds of a university, advertising and office materials 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without the need to resort to rows.
Pro Gas; another of the winners consists of a device that allows detecting gas leaks in homes by issuing an audible alert when abnormal levels of gas are detected.
UPE is a project that consists of access control to areas such as offices or condominiums through mobile devices. According to its creators, this would allow to improve security and accelerate the registration and entrance to places with security posts.
Rambuhealth; a natural antioxidant that is obtained from the shell of the Chinese “mamóm” (fruit) and that is added to various beverages to prevent diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and others, in an environmentally friendly way.
Indigo Drones offers its services in the field of precision agriculture, through monitoring software and improvement of the agricultural production chain using drones and aerial images.
Workride is an app that promises to collaborate with the environment and the easing of traffic on the streets of the country, which is proposed to be implemented by companies located in corporate centers that have large expenses for parking for their employees. This application will allow a person to take several more, workers from the same place, in the same vehicle to reduce the carbon footprint and, also, save gasoline.
CenibotNatura won the 6th place. It is a project formed by members of a division of the National Center for Biotechnological Innovations, which seeks to develop natural supplements that benefit the health of people who consume them.
Bact-to-sense consists of a detection device based on bacteria, to determine the presence of the dengue virus in blood samples early, easily, and quickly.
To sum up, Costa Rica Open Future is a public-private initiative that is part of the global network of innovation of entrepreneurship of the “Telefónica” company. Open Future provides a space for entrepreneurs who are starting their marketing training, are linked to innovation and/or technology, and have a projection for combating staggering economic growth in 18 countries of Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
