Expansión Selects 10 Finalists for 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year Initiative

On Friday, June 30, the Spanish-language news portal CNN Expansión announced the ten finalist companies for their “Entrepreneur of the Year” initiative.

Seeking to recognize the companies and entrepreneurs who are making the biggest impact in the Mexican and Latin American sector, the winner of the 2017 “Entrepreneur of the Year” will receive the cover feature in a special edition of the magazine’s print version, to be published this fall.

Of this year’s ten finalist companies, two were launched with the help of the Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge: Ben & Frank (NVC ’16) and Briq.mx (NVC ’15) listed along with the Booth alumni and cofounders of Ben & Frank, Mariana Castillo Lopez, MBA ’16, and Eduardo Paulsen, MBA ’16.

Ben & Frank is an eyewear startup, focusing on bringing fashionable and affordable eyewear to Mexico. By cutting intermediaries and selling primarily online, they manage to cut prices to a fraction of the big-name brands.

Briq.mx is a crowdfunding platform that connects premium real estate developers with investors in Mexico. To investors, it provides the opportunity to invest in real estate projects of premium developers, with attractive risk/reward profiles and relatively low investment amounts. To developers, it offers an attractive financing alternative.

The full list of companies selected as finalists for this year’s award range in industry from e-commerce and FinTech to health, water supply, and general technology, and can be viewed on Expansion.mx.

Innovation, economic impact, growth potential, social outreach and scalability are just some of the characteristics that these emerging ventures have in common and on which they will be further judged.

Each finalist company is scheduled to present to a panel of judges on July 10 after which the 2017 “Entrepreneur of the Year” will be chosen.

*The original article can be read in Spanish, here.