Argentina High Tech Potential, Investors Still Cautious

Certainly Argentina, South America’s third largest economy, has had its troubles over the past decade or two. From inflation, devaluation, corruption and political drama, the country has not enjoyed tech investment like its peers.

Argentina has had to persevere through fourteen years of default resulting in a $4.65B payment to U.S. hedge funds. It may not come as a shock that the country ranks 157th out of 189 countries in terms of the ease of doing business.

Despite all the turmoil, there is a tech community focused on developing pro-business endeavors. According to TechCrunch, 60 percent of Argentines between the ages of 18 and 24 report finding entrepreneurship as a favorable career path. Even more so, a quarter of that population say they intend to start a business in the future.

President Mauricio Macri was elected in December and has been known to be pro-business. He has culled new plans for an open market and reenergizing the entrepreneurial spirit of Latin America. Its capital, Buenos Aires is home to three renown technical universities, as well as new coding schools that just last year alone have had the number of students multiply five times over. Mentorship programs and hotlines for newly minted entrepreneurs are also popping up, thanks to businesses like eCommerce auction site MercadoLibre, and IT and software company Globant.

With all those growing trends, Argentina still lags with few success stories. Some analysts note pain points as issues with clean water supply, agriculture and renewable energy sources.

As a result, while investors across the world are noticing Argentina’s efforts, they are still cautious until they see a proven track record, and an alignment with political stability. The new government has promoted many pro-business promises, but those are still seemingly nascent.

Regardless, analysts believe that Argentina is rewriting its future and may have some potential global unicorns. They earmark Argentina as a country to watch for the next decade due to this new potential.