Nateco: a spin-off that grows with the impetus of science and innovation

At Reddi, we believe in the power of transforming scientific knowledge into solutions that generate real impact on society. That’s why we support technology-based companies like Nateco , a spin-off from the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente (UAO), founded by professor and researcher Luz Marina Flórez , who has successfully turned her academic experience into an opportunity for sustainable development.

Nateco has been recognized as one of the winners of the SciencePreneurs program scholarship, an initiative of the Deeptech Colombia ecosystem , of which Reddi is a part. This award highlights science entrepreneurs who lead high-impact projects based on knowledge and technology.

Luz Marina Flórez

Teacher and researcher

Autonomous University of the West

As part of our work mapping and raising the profile of technology-based companies , Reddi supported Nateco in its application to the Seed Capital program , a strategy promoted by the Mayor’s Office of Santiago de Cali , through the Secretariat of Economic Development and the 2025 Business Consortium . This initiative supports entrepreneurs, informal workers, and SMEs with training, technical assistance, and capitalization resources to strengthen their production units.

As a result of this process, Nateco was selected as a beneficiary of the Seed Capital fund , an achievement that represents a decisive step to consolidate its business model and continue developing technological solutions that promote environmental sustainability.

At Reddi, we celebrate this progress and reaffirm our commitment to technology transfer and strengthening the Deeptech ecosystem . Cases like Nateco are the best example of how, when research and innovation are connected with the right support, ideas can become true drivers of economic and social change.

Four technologies from the Reddi ecosystem shine at the 2025 Colombian National Inventor Award

The creativity and ingenuity of our region once again shone on the national stage. In the 2025 edition of the Colombian National Inventor Award, four technologies supported by Reddi received recognition in this prestigious award that promotes a culture of invention and patent protection, solidifying its position as one of the most important in the country.

What is the Colombian National Inventor Award?

This award, led by the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC) , seeks to stimulate the inventive capacity of Colombians who develop products, processes or technologies that contribute to the industrial and technological development of the country.

The winners receive a medal and diploma, legal support in new patenting processes, funding of industrial property fees and, above all, visibility to continue growing.

Professor Sofía Parra – Mariana University. Recipient of the “Get the Most Out of Your Patent 5.0” program with her Coconut Wood technology

Professor Luz Marina Flórez – Recipient of the DeepTech Alliance Sciencepreneurs Grant with her SpinOff Nateco

The winning technologies in our ecosystem

1. Sugar Stick Sweetener: Technology that sweetens hot beverages without waste, reducing your personal carbon footprint and complying with environmental regulations. Beneficiary of the Get the Most Out of Your Patent 5.0 (SJTP) program . Learn more here: Sugar Stick Sweetener

2. Coconut Wood (MDC): An innovative particleboard technology, with coconut fiber as its main component, offers a versatile and durable solution. A beneficiary of the Get the Most Out of Your Patent 5.0 (SJTP) program. Discover it here: MDC – Coconut Wood

3. Nateco: Specializes in the production of products made with biomaterials, offering sustainable alternatives to replace polluting materials like plastic. Winner of a scholarship for the Sciencepreneurs Built DeepTech program . Learn more: Nateco

4. Cocotech.ai: A digital platform that optimizes healthcare management with smart scheduling, a self-service portal, telemedicine, and a service marketplace. Currently operating in 4 countries, with over 700 healthcare centers and 5 million monthly transactions. Participant in Qualinn ‘s Experience Day . Discover it here: Cocotech.ai

A collective achievement

These awards not only celebrate the inventors behind each initiative, but also the ecosystem that drives purposeful innovation . For Reddi, supporting these processes means further solidifying Colombia’s position as a leader in scientific and technological creativity.

The awards ceremony, held between September 8 and 12, 2025, brought together inventors from across the country and highlighted projects with transformative potential in multiple sectors.

At Reddi, we celebrate this milestone and reaffirm our commitment: to continue connecting talent, science, and technology so that more inventors from our region can have an impact in Colombia and the world.

Businessman Marlio Silva, beneficiary of Get the Most Out of Your Patent 5.0 with his Molinillito technology

Ten alliances from Fusióni3 Valle recognized their potential in the Connection Sprint

More than 50 attendees were present at the Fusióni3 Valle Connection Sprint.

The event, in which the ten alliances benefiting from the Maturation Fund presented their progress for the third time, allowed them to showcase how the knowledge and experience of universities and companies in Valle del Cauca have been successfully combined to strengthen innovation.

In the presence of directors from the allied universities; companies, both beneficiaries of the Maturation Fund and the Innovation Voucher; the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Secretariat of Economic Development and Competitiveness of Valle del Cauca, the progress of the product and service prototypes was presented, and the pitches highlighted how the solutions will impact the markets in the short and medium term.

“ We recognized how these results go to market, can gain traction and, why not, think about new spin-offs and new products launched, and thus be able to design better public policies in the department,” said Secretary Óscar Eduardo Vivas Astudillo.

Likewise, the Sprint highlighted how the region’s industry and academia have found ways to meet, work together, and achieve goals that are celebrated by the institutions that are part of Fusióni3 Valle.

The Vice-Rector of Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Autonomous University of the West, Jesús David Cardona, expressed his satisfaction:

“ Seeing this excites us so much, because before, when a businessperson visited us, they didn’t see the possibilities of linking the university’s Science, Technology, and Innovation capabilities so clearly. My invitation is for us to continue dreaming together; for businesses to be able to coexist within the university. It’s a great opportunity for new connections to emerge. We can accelerate and refine things based on knowledge.”

New connections and the final stretch

The Fusióni3 Valle Connection Sprint opened its doors to people from various organizations, including companies in the region, researchers and teachers in general, to attend the event, with the aim of recognizing future allies and connecting.

For this purpose, there was a space for conclusions, interaction and display of prototypes, as well as the presentation of processes.

Anny Parra, coordinator of Objective 2 University-Business Connections at Fusióni3 Valle, gave a positive assessment of the day:

“During the Connection Sprint, we saw concrete progress in each alliance and highly satisfactory results for everyone. We are very proud to see that the alliances are now recognized as benchmarks for solving their challenges, and vice versa.”

The ten alliances benefiting from the Maturation Fund will continue working in their final stage, and the completion of each project will take place between September and November 2025, according to the start date of each one.

Reddi Colombia present at the Capital Summit 2025 of the Cali Chamber of Commerce

Reddi Colombia had the honor of participating as a VIP guest at Capital Summit 2025, an event organized by the Cali Chamber of Commerce that is consolidating itself as one of the most important scenarios for the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Latin America.

During the event, more than 250 ecosystem stakeholders and 60 international funds gathered in Cali to forge high-impact connections, securing investment commitments of USD 8.5 million and fostering collaboration to drive the growth of startups and technology-based companies in the region. At this event, Reddi Colombia strengthened its role as a key facilitator in knowledge transfer and open innovation. Participation allowed for the creation of new strategic alliances, the expansion of its network of partners, and closer ties with investors, entrepreneurs, and institutions working to accelerate technological transformation in the country.

The Capital Summit 2025 stood out not only for its investment results, but also for being a meeting point where ideas become opportunities and connections pave the way for a more competitive future for Latin America.

At Reddi Colombia, we reaffirm our commitment to continue connecting research, innovation, and business with global scenarios that foster technological development and value creation for the region.

Source: https://bit.ly/47Etvkl

Transformative results: Fusióni3 Cauca consolidates innovation as an engine of regional development

With the participation of universities, businesses, and strategic partners, the Fusióni3 Cauca project successfully established an innovation ecosystem focused on territorial development . Through effective collaboration between academia and the productive sector, technological solutions were developed that now strengthen the competitiveness of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the department of Cauca.

One of the project’s greatest achievements was the genuine connection it fostered between research groups and the local business community. The 30 participating companies established links with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), leading to the development of 45 joint research, development, and innovation projects. Ten of these projects received funding through the maturation fund, enabling them to develop functional prototypes, reach advanced levels of technological maturity , and validate their solutions in real-world or simulated environments , demonstrating their direct applicability in the production sector .

From the academic sphere, our four participating higher education institutions (HEIs)—Universidad del Cauca, Universidad Nacional Abierta y Distancia, Institución Universitaria Colegio Mayor del Cauca, and Corporación Universitaria Comfacauca— adopted strategies for engaging with the business sector, generating a new dynamic of collaboration. More than 500 students, faculty, and researchers were made aware of the importance of connecting science, technology, and society as the foundation for development. Furthermore, these HEIs developed technology portfolios with a total of 18 available solutions, designed to address specific challenges faced by regional businesses.

The economic impact is also significant. Seventy percent of university-business partnerships developed new products and improved processes; 30% of the partnerships improved their existing products or created new processes . This has led 78% of the participating companies to project increased sales thanks to the commercialization of these innovations. These initiatives have strengthened the business fabric in six municipalities of Cauca, with visible effects in sectors such as agribusiness, information technology, commerce, tourism, industry, and construction.

One of the project’s major milestones was the development of the Fusióni360 open innovation platform, conceived as a digital space for business challenges and academic capabilities to converge. Through this tool, 71 challenges were identified and linked with 86 innovative solutions . Currently, the platform has 444 registered users , 102 uploaded solutions , 74 formulated challenges , 5 comments, 325 active connections, 66 submitted proposals, 26 formulated projects , and 0 pending relationships, positioning it as a strategic resource for collaborative innovation in the department.

In the closing phase, in partnership with the Eastern Energy Company (CEO), two solutions were funded with a contribution of $100 million to address their innovation challenges. In addition, six specialized services were provided that strengthened innovation processes in the 30 beneficiary MSMEs , enabling them to make more informed strategic decisions and project growth.

Beyond the numbers, Fusióni3 Cauca leaves behind established capabilities in the region. Each project formulated, each prototype developed, and each link built between academia and industry represents a seed of change. It is a commitment to consolidating an environment where innovation is not an isolated event, but an integral part of the DNA of regional development. Thanks to these achievements, companies in Cauca now have more sophisticated solutions, improved production processes, access to new markets , and are moving toward more sustainable business models.

Furthermore, this innovative ecosystem opens the door to attracting external resources, developing new technology-based projects , and activating a collaborative network that brings together universities, companies, and strategic partners. This network will undoubtedly continue to grow beyond the project’s completion. Fusióni3 Cauca demonstrates that when innovation responds to the realities of the region, it becomes a true engine of economic, social, and productive transformation.

In Cali, the DeepTech Report 2024 was launched and the new Sciencepreneurs who are transforming the country were recognized.

The YAWÁ Science, Art and Technology Center was the setting for the launch of the DeepTech Report 2024 and the awarding of scholarships for the Sciencepreneurs Business & Built program, a day that brought together 117 actors from the ecosystem, including entrepreneurs, investors, universities, research centers, corporations and public entities.

This event marks a new milestone in positioning Cali and Valle del Cauca as regional leaders in scientific and technological innovation.

During the event, strategic networking opportunities were created to foster collaborations between the productive and scientific sectors. The event included the panel discussion “The Challenges of Entrepreneurship in Science,” moderated by Juan Manuel Chaves, manager of Reddi Colombia, with the participation of prominent founders of startups such as:

Natalia Campillo, BioDx – Cali
Isabel Pulido, Biocold – Bogotá
María Clara Arrieta, Astrolab Bio – Medellín
Luz Marina Flórez, Nateco – Cali

These women leaders shared the challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned from leading ventures that originate in laboratories and seek to scale based on scientific evidence.

A report to build the future

MenteX CEO Claudia Aparicio presented the key findings of the DeepTech Colombia 2024 Report, an updated overview of a growing ecosystem that already boasts more than 50 startups in Latin America (according to the DeepTech 2024 report), many of them based in or impacting Colombia. The report highlights the potential of the country, and Cali in particular, to establish itself as a DeepTech hub thanks to its biodiversity, scientific capabilities, and business network.

New scholarships for scientific entrepreneurs

One of the highlights was the awarding of scholarships from the Sciencepreneurs program, led by Mauricio Muñoz (Mayor’s Office of Cali), Vivian Argueta (Cali Chamber of Commerce) and Juan Diego Vargas (MenteX).

The startups selected for the 2025 phase were:

– Nateco – Autonomous University of the West

– BioAgro Technology

– Recover

– Ajicap – Icesi University

– Nanotech

These initiatives represent the future of sectors such as bioeconomy, agriculture, health, and sustainability. From medical diagnostic technologies to nanotechnology-based agricultural solutions, the new Sciencepreneurs demonstrate that applied science can solve the most pressing challenges of our environment.

DeepTech: an opportunity for Cali and the region

Driven by the Mayor’s Office of Cali, the Cali Chamber of Commerce, the Governor’s Office of Valle del Cauca and Reddi Colombia, this event consolidated a clear message: science can indeed become a business, and Cali is fertile ground to achieve it.

The DeepTech ecosystem in the region continues to strengthen, connecting talent with opportunities, laboratories with companies, and knowledge with impact. The goal is ambitious: to position Cali as a science and innovation hub in Latin America, and to advance toward an economic model based on technology, collaboration, and sustainable development.

Want to know more? Download the DeepTech Report 2024 and discover the opportunities to be part of this new wave of innovation.