What key factors are boosting innovation in Bolivia?
COVID has disrupted all business models. Therefore, no matter the size, the market, or the context, any business must afford innovation. Bolivia is not the exception, 2021 is becoming the year with the highest number of identified innovations. Today I aim to give insights for those willing to achieve it, analyzing innovations in selected categories.
Heritage linked Innovations
What does the decision of the inhabitants from the Town of Laja, to remove from their main square the statue of the Spanish conqueror Alonso de Mendoza, have to do with current innovations in Bolivia?
To begin, we must realize that there is a global south movement related to decolonization; perhaps impulsed by political polarization, social and economic unconformity, which is enhancing our interest to revalorize our indigenous heritage.
The use of cultural and natural heritage to create new products has been happening in the Bolivian fashion industry for a long time. However, just recently this trend is finally shifting to other industries, and you can notice it with the following innovations:
Food & Beverage Industries: Delizia and Huari:
I can call Delizia our flag milk industry thanks to its innovative products centered on our cultural heritage. With two great examples launched this year: The first one is the celebration of our regions and the country as a whole with the release of ice cream products based on traditional Bolivian flavors like “Huminta” (a corn-based sweet cake). And more recently, the launching of “Tantawawa”, ice cream to celebrate Bolivian traditions from our “Dia de difuntos”.
This year Huari, the beer brand, launched a campaign to revalorize our traditional textiles; you can read more about this innovation in this article.
Finance Industry: PASANQ
Pasanaku, our traditional game that celebrates how Bolivians help each other save collaboratively, inspired to create this application to play it more efficiently, plus providing financial education and advice.
Delivery: Chasquidelivery
Due to the economic crisis effect of the Pandemic, José Valdes, a radio announcer, created “Chasqui Delivery” to distribute the food made by her wife. The particularity of this delivery service is the novel use of “Condori Condori”, his character inspired in our Bolivian idiosyncrasy, who among amusing customers during the delivery process, relieves the solitude sensation that brought COVID-19, by connecting us with a familiar character.
The climate crisis and Gas & Oil supply
Among The Climate Crisis, we have in Bolivia related drivers of change boosting innovations. One of these is the possible mid-term shortage of fossil fuels production, and consequent price rise (remember that the government has been frozen them for more than 14 years now). And, since Gas & Oil companies that operate in Bolivia are not encouraged to explore gas fields because of current regulations, today thanks to COVID-19 and the Climate Crisis, these companies are focusing all their major investments to develop renewable energy sources. Related innovations to highlight are:
Transportation and Mobility: Mobi and Walawa
Mobi is a game-changing innovation, one should focus on them because of the potential to change customers’ expectations countrywide; we will discuss it at the end of the article. For those unfamiliar with Mobi, let me state that this startup provides a shared micromobility system to provide customers electric vehicles for their transportation; with technology developed in Bolivia that includes vehicles, lithium batteries, and software. It has raised more than one million USD in its first investing round and today is valued at 5 MM USD.
Walawa , based in Cochabamba, is a startup that offers a micromobility option using electric scooters to rent. I am not here to compare but to celebrate we are having more entrepreneurs encouraged to develop eco-friendly mobility solutions in several cities.
Delivery: Ecodelivery
Rising concerns of the level of contamination from traffic in Cochabamba helped to create Ecodelivery, an environmentally friendly service, using bikes or electric vehicles locally manufactured.
Rising health awareness
It is not a casualty that the 2021 edition of the Latin American Startup directory highlights that, from all startups sectors that raised a +1 million investment, health tech startups reached the 5th position, something that was not seen before the pandemic. COVID-19 placed mental and physical health on top priorities among all our human basic needs. Moreover, the economic crisis effect and the large percentage of the Bolivian population who has no medical insurance gives a wide range of opportunities for those businesses willing to be part of this “New health Economy”.
Healthtech: Medicinets
This digital platform integrates all information and communication among patients, laboratories, medical doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and other actors of the health ecosystem. Therefore, providing useful data that can help to make more efficient health services. For example, patients can benefit from having all their medical history in one database.
Healthcare: Farmacorp
Now for 150 Bolivianos, a person can get medical insurance for three months. This is a very reasonable price for a country where public medical insurance costs monthly an employer at least 200 Bolivianos. This supplier, created another personalized service for a family of 5 persons, with affordable medical insurance that costs 100 Bolivianos for a month.
Healthcare: CREOTEC
Creotec is a startup that designs and manufactures low-cost prosthetics using 3D printing technology. One of the key impacts of this startup is the capacity to produce a personalized product that can improve the lives of persons with a disability, particularly those in a sensible economic situation.
Discussion
Currently, other industries besides fashion can take advantage that customers are now expecting personalized products or services focused on our cultural heritage. As you can see in the above examples, there is plenty of room for other industries to innovate. About denying our colonial heritage, I prefer the point of view of Silvia Ribera Cusicanqui, who proposes that our Indigenous and European roots can coexist together based on a concept called Ch’ixi. This is defined as “a decolonizing force of miscegenation, far from fusion or hybridity, it is about living together and inhabiting contradictions. Not denying one part or the other, nor seeking a synthesis, but admitting the permanent struggle in our subjectivity between the Indian and the European”.
From my point of view, the potential expectation that Mobi can create in the (hopefully short term) future, is that consumers will expect low-cost products or services that can help them reduce their environmental footprint simply and conveniently, very much linked with Mobi’s slogan: “Inspire the change”. So I recommend other industries willing to innovate, starting with the above-mentioned expectation to explore alternatives: like this for example.
Health will always be a basic human need. Thanks to COVID-19, enterprises are creating new ways to satisfy this need. Above mentioned innovations in that category can help create a more resilient health ecosystem, particularly if we design products and services for disadvantaged and large populations.
I appreciate the complementary point of view from Gonzalo Castellanos, an expert in Innovation, who told me that, although the above-mentioned examples mean that no matter the size of our industry we can creatively innovate. Let’s not forget that a very important component of Research and Development is still missing: we need to connect industry with academics to develop more disruptive and impactful innovations.
