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IDB

IDB Lab Invests in Talently to Promote the Training and Hiring of Technological Talent

The Peruvian startup seeks to expand in Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and consolidate in Colombia, Mexico, and Peru

The Inter-American Development Bank’s innovation lab, IDB Lab, has approved a $750,000 investment for Talently, a Peruvian company dedicated to training and connecting Latin American tech talent with international companies. The capital will allow the startup to consolidate its training platform for software developers and promote a market of technological talent, as well as influence three key aspects for the sector: increase access and participation of women in the technological field, promote technological development in Central America, and launch a product that accelerates the hiring of Latin American technological talent in the United States.

Education, human resources, and employment converge in an initiative expected to reach about 160,000 Latin American professionals, 40,000 of which will be women, with a skills improvement program and remote work opportunities in technology companies. It will also benefit the companies by allowing them to improve their recruitment processes in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“This project aligns with IDB Lab’s new investment strategies, supporting entrepreneurs who launch innovative business models that could become powerful engines of economic growth. As an innovation laboratory, we are committed to helping build and scale ventures that allow us to capture the emerging market of technological talent in Latin America and the Caribbean, a massive and still untapped market opportunity,” said Irene Arias, CEO of IDB Lab.

Digital transformation is translating into a growing demand for unmet technological talent in our region due to the persistent gap between talents and jobs in the technological labor market. Many current edtech solutions are helping students learn to code, but not necessarily improve their skills, be job-ready, and find a job in a sector where women’s participation is barely 8 percent.

The Peruvian startup, with two female founders, focuses much of its efforts on helping female talent improve their skills and employability in the technology sector. IDB Lab has mobilized funds from the We-Fi program, which aims to address the constraints faced by small and medium-sized enterprises run by women in developing countries.

“As a bridge of connections between talent and global companies, we must promote hiring that considers the skills and capabilities of tech professionals, not their gender. Latin America still has a lot of room for growth here, and we are working to achieve it. At Talently, we aim to increase women participation and hiring,” said Doménica Obando, CEO and founding partner of Talently.

Talently focuses on two clients: computer programmers with at least two years of work experience and technology contractors. For the former, it offers the educational platform Talently Go!, a 12-week training program to acquire the necessary skills to find a job, and Talently Match, a product that combines an affinity algorithm with talent verification to make an intelligent match between technology companies and workers, accelerating the process of searching and finding a job. For hiring companies, it offers the Talently Hire service, which advises companies in their search for talent and ensures labor concordance, saving time and money.

About IDB Lab 

IDB Lab is the innovation laboratory of the IDB Group, the leading source of development finance and know-how for improving lives in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The purpose of IDB Lab is to drive innovation for inclusion in the region by mobilizing financing, knowledge, and connections to test early-stage solutions with the potential to transform the lives of vulnerable populations affected by economic, social, and/or environmental factors. Since 1993 IDB Lab has approved more than US$ 2 billion in projects deployed across 26 LAC countries. www.idblab.org

About We-Fi

We-Fi is a collaborative partnership between 14 governments, eight multilateral development banks, and other public and private stakeholders hosted by the World Bank Group. It aims to address the financial and non-financial constraints faced by small and medium-sized enterprises owned or run by women in developing countries. It finances projects, programs, and activities aligned with its objectives and principles. www.we-fi.org https://we-fi.org/

About Talently

Talently is the marketplace that connects Latin American tech talent with international contracting companies. It was founded in 2019 to help technology experts get jobs in companies in the tech industry, such as Microsoft, Rappi, Nubank, PayPal, Pinterest, Mercado Libre, and Globant, among others, both in the region and in the United States. The platform currently has more than 5,000 students and more than 150 hiring companies looking to grow and scale their technological reach with the help of Talently. www.talently.tech

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