Promoting High-Growth and Sustainable Enterprises in the Caribbean

The Entrepreneurship Program for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC) seeks to build a supportive ecosystem for high-growth and sustainable enterprises throughout the Caribbean. The seven-year $20 million program is funded by the government of Canada and implemented by infoDev and the World Bank Group.
Interested in learning more? Here are some frequently asked questions about the program. You can also get in touch at the links below.
Our Initiatives
Accelerate Caribbean: Accelerate Caribbean builds the capacity of regional business enablers through mentorship, training programs, and international study tours.
Access to Finance: The program promotes angel investing and innovative financing in the region through LINK-Caribbean, and contributed to the launch of Jamaica's first angel network.
Caribbean Climate Innovation Center: The Caribbean Climate Innovation Center connects climate technology entrepreneurs with knowledge, markets, and funding.
Caribbean Mobile Innovation Project: Led by PitchIT Caribbean, the Caribbean Mobile Innovation Project promotes the growth of mobile app businesses through innovation hubs and pitching competitions.
Women Innovators Network in the Caribbean: The program supports women entrepreneurs through webinars and training programs, including the WINC Acceleration Program.
Events Calendar
Highlights
 Electricity generation is four times more expensive in the Caribbean than in the United States, and four of the world’s 10 largest generators of garbage per capita are in the Eastern Caribbean. To help the region turn waste into fuel, green entrepreneurs Shavez Walters and Zendini Bibby pitched their innovative business ideas at the GreenTech Bootcamp competition held last December in St. Vincent.
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The public transportation market in the Caribbean is in urgent need of modernization, as lack of information and poorly planned transit systems cause significant social and economic challenges. Locals and tourists using buses and taxis often have limited information on the status or arrival time of their transportation, resulting in lost time, being late for work or school, missed appointments, and frustration. Similarly, people who manage these vehicles (owners or insurers) have little or no information on how they are being driven, even though they often occupy the highest risk categories. Caribbean Transit Solutions, based in Barbados, plans to change all this. They provide real-time and on-demand information on public transit as well as private fleets of vehicles.
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 Few green technology entrepreneurs are more passionate than Scheed Cole of Jamaica. His recycling and construction business has already received World Bank Group support through the Caribbean Climate Innovation Center, and soon Cole will pitch his company to First Angels Jamaica, the region’s premier angel investors group. FAJ also received World Bank Group support in its early days and is now a lead partner with LINK-Caribbean, designed to help expand organized angel investing and stimulate private investment in start-ups.
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In Breadnut Hill, St. Ann, Jamaica, near the famous Dunn’s River Falls, the eco-farm and lodge Durga’s Den sits right in front of one of the most breathtaking views of the Caribbean Sea. The farm is growing in popularity by attracting visitors and volunteers from all over the world looking for a nature-immersive, hands-on learning vacation.
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A new mobile application called Findrpro has received $5,000 USD investment via the LINK-Caribbean programme’s 5-5-5 pitch competition.
Entrepreneur Darceuil Duncan from Trinidad and Tobago came up with the business idea when looking for a solution to the growing amount of waste produced in urban centers.
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Gerard Thomas, co-founder of Launch RockIT in Trinidad and country advisor for the LINK-Caribbean Program, explains how entrepreneurs can prepare and deliver a compelling pitch presentation that can generate attention and interest among investors.
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De Jeunesse Bath and Body Products, a company that manufactures high-quality, natural bath and body products, earned the top prize at the launch of the LINK-Caribbean Pitch Competition held November 21 at the Hyatt Hotel in Trinidad.
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With Slush, the world’s leading start-up and technology event, coming up Nov. 30-Dec. 1 in Helsinki, Finland, two entrepreneurs from Jamaica are awash with excitement as they gear up to participate in this premier event. The entrepreneurs earned spots in the Slush Global Impact Accelerator (GIA) boot camp program in a competition held by PitchIT Caribbean, and will join other impact-driven entrepreneurs from around the globe.
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The Caribbean has great potential for crowdfunding, provided that the right enabling environment is put in place to promote it. Crowdfunding is the art of raising funds through social, professional, and public networks using the internet. With the rise of this form of financing, there are many crowdfunding success stories, but in the Caribbean among the most successful campaigns is that of the Jamaica bobsled team. In 2014, the team raised over $155,000 using the Indiegogo and Crowdtilt crowdfunding platforms to fund its participation in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Russia.
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Crowdfunding in the Caribbean could bolster early stage capital markets, entrepreneurship, creativity, economic growth, and employment – provided that policymakers create the right environment. This was revealed in the report “Crowdfunding’s Potential in the Caribbean: A Preliminary Assessment,” commissioned and recently released by infoDev, a global innovation and entrepreneurship program at the World Bank Group.
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Three teams from Jamaica copped the top spots in the recently held virtual PitchIT Caribbean SLUSH GIA competition. They are now lined up for a coveted interview spot with the Slush 2017 Global Impact Accelerator program panel in Finland. The successful teams are Link Your Purpose, an online career development and mentoring platform; First Responders Technology Ltd, a mobile platform to enable emergency response services; and Braata Box & Co., an online marketplace for local craftspeople, makers, and artisans. The teams were selected from a field of over 40 entries from across CARICOM.
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As the halfway point of the two-year LINK-Caribbean Angel Investment program approaches, over $500,000 USD has been awarded to 14 Caribbean companies to support their development to attract angel investment. The World Bank Group, together with the Caribbean Export Development Agency, launched LINK-Caribbean last September, funded by the government of Canada. The investment facilitation program aims to enable early-stage Caribbean entrepreneurs to raise capital from private investors, particularly business angel investors.
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June 29, 2017
Building on the success of its 2016 Acceleration Program, the Women Innovators Network in the Caribbean (WINC) is launching its 2017 program. The eight-month peer learning program, which begins in November 2017, is designed to help growth-oriented women entrepreneurs innovate and boost the growth of their businesses.
May 31, 2017
To sustain its momentum and improve upon its mandate, the World Bank Group’s Caribbean Climate Innovation Center (CCIC) will host key representatives from the Bank, government of Canada, CCIC consortium members Scientific Research Council (SRC) and the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) as well as other top regional partners for sustainability and economic impact talks at the Holiday Inn in Montego Bay, Jamaica from June 1-2.
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May 31, 2017
$75,000 in cash and prizes will be up for grabs when 25 finalists from around the Caribbean region vie for honours in the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge tech entrepreneur competition, scheduled for June 13-17, 2017 in St. Kitts and Nevis.
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May 25, 2017
The Caribbean Export Development Agency co-hosted the inaugural Caribbean Angel Investor Forum in Montego Bay on May 12, 2017, together with the World Bank Group. The event, which attracted some of the region’s most influential business people, came together to lay the foundation for a more buoyant and active Angel Investor ecosystem within the Caribbean.
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April 12, 2017
108 proud women entrepreneurs have graduated from the first Acceleration Program (AP) of the Women Innovators Network in the Caribbean (WINC). They represent a wide variety of sectors: retail, creative, cosmetology, baking, engineering, sports, and manufacturing.
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January 24, 2017
The Women Innovators Network Caribbean (WINC) — a cornerstone initiative of the Entrepreneurship Program for Innovation in the Caribbean sponsored by the government of Canada — recently concluded its first acceleration program for women entrepreneurs. Designed to jump-start women-led enterprises across the region, the program provided local entrepreneurs with mentorship, training, and networking opportunities. One of them, Kenia Mattis, told us the story of her company and how WINC helped her succeed.
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January 18, 2017
In the Caribbean, a growing number of women is pursuing technology careers, as developers, coders, and tech entrepreneurs.
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25 December 2016
Four of the Caribbean’s top mobile entrepreneurs traveled to Helsinki, Finland, to participate in the Slush Global Impact Accelerator, a two-week program designed to help impactful entrepreneurs from emerging markets accelerate their businesses and attract financing. We spoke with a business development specialist at Reperio, a Trinidad and Tobago-based language learning company.
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20 December 2016
How does an entrepreneur catch the attention of an angel investor? Jeremy Bauman, a senior consultant at the World Bank, shares a glimpse into the mind of an angel investor at the launch of LINK-Caribbean, an initiative to improve access to capital for Caribbean entrepreneurs.
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21 November 2016
Four of the Caribbean’s top mobile entrepreneurs traveled to Helsinki, Finland, to participate in the Slush Global Impact Accelerator, a two-week program designed to help impactful entrepreneurs from emerging markets accelerate their businesses and attract financing. We spoke with the founders of Jamaica-based start-ups BookFusion and CrimeBot.
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16 November 2016
As EPIC enters its sixth year, several major milestones have been recorded. “We are steadily strengthening the capacity of business enablers and local angel investors, and increasing the number of investable growth-oriented entrepreneurs,” said Ganesh Rasagam, Practice Manager of the World Bank Group’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit.
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15 November 2016
In this article, you’ll learn whether LINK-Caribbean's Investment Readiness Grant is appropriate for your business and how to prepare a winning application.
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28 September 2016
Bridgetown, BARBADOS, September 27, 2016. Caribbean start-up, early-stage and growth businesses now have another means for raising capital.
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21 July 2016
If he hadn’t claimed that abandoned computer he found while doing construction work, Dwayne Campbell would never have left his chemical engineering track — or developed a hot new digital book-publishing platform.
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8 July 2016
Accelerate Caribbean's third professional development webinar focused on how to build effective mentoring networks in the Caribbean. "Don't forget the diaspora," said Vimala Palaniswamy, cofounder of Demeter Entrepreneurs Support Network.
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5 July 2016
At an Accelerate Caribbean workshop, representatives of the World Bank Group and the governments of Jamaica and Canada discussed how to build a stronger ecosystem to help regional entrepreneurs launch and grow profitable businesses.
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25 April 2016
At the Development Bank of Jamaica's Venture Capital Conference, Nelson Gray discussed the myths and realities of angel investors, necessary tools for pitching, the deal workflow — and a strategy he calls the “Granny test.”
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14 April 2016
When Yekini Wallen Bryan returned to school for his final semester in January, the energy and electronics student never anticipated he would soon receive the grand prize in a clean-tech innovation competition.
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8 March 2016
A large crowd of young clean-tech entrepreneurs brought their ideas and enthusiasm to the first Green Tech Startup Bootcamp in the Caribbean, which was co-hosted by the Caribbean Climate Innovation Center on February 26-28, 2016.
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19 February 2016
Accelerate Caribbean partnered with Marlon Hill, a United States-based lawyer and champion of Caribbean entrepreneurship, to host a webinar on team building, marketing, and brand protection for Caribbean business owners.
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21 December 2015
New Leaf Power received a grant from the Caribbean Climate Innovation Center to develop a solar-powered lamp and charging device for a remote Jamaican fishing community. One year later, their lamps are lighting the way for disaster relief in Dominica.
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10 December 2015
The World Bank Group and the Government Canada held a workshop for Caribbean entrepreneurs and regional partners. The workshop was the first joint event of the Caribbean Climate Innovation Center and Caribbean Mobile Innovation Program.
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9 December 2015
Harlo Mayne and Dr. Kert Edward, two clean technology entrepreneurs in EPIC’s climate innovation program, presented their hydrogen and solar energy prototypes at the First International Conference and Exhibition on Hydrogen held on November 3 to 4 at the University of Technology, Jamaica.
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7 December 2015
Jamaican tech entrepreneurs Nichole Crawford and Winnie Dzidonu-Genius traveled to Helsinki, Finland, to pitch their businesses at the Slush Global Impact Accelerator, a nine-day bootcamp for social impact entrepreneurs from emerging markets. The first-ever Global Impact Accelerator was a joint program of the World Bank Group, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, and Slush.
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29 October 2015
A new peer mentorship-based program will support high-potential women entrepreneurs in the Caribbean. The eight-month intensive Acceleration Program will provide participants with a wide range of support services to innovate their businesses, improve their competitiveness, and boost their growth. The program will include one-on-one coaching, technical workshops, and opportunities to connect with successful women entrepreneurs.
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9 October 2015
In the last few decades, women in the Caribbean have made impressive strides to break through the glass ceiling and become successful entrepreneurs. The growing network of peers, mentors, and angel investors has provided women across the region with the tools and resources necessary to launch and grow new businesses.
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30 September 2015
A new report fills the information gap related to growth-oriented women entrepreneurs in the Caribbean by drawing on various data sources to estimate their numbers and sectors. The report also introduces the challenges Caribbean women face when attempting to grow their businesses.
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4 June 2015
Following a 5-week competition and rigorous selection process, Accelerate Caribbean is excited to announce ten business enablers from 7 islands in the Caribbean that will participate in its Business Incubation Clinic during 2015-2016.
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26 May 2015
Two mobile developer teams from Jamaica’s University of Technology were awarded the first and second prizes at a Caribbean CodeSprint/Hackathon held in Kingston on May 24-25.
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22 April 2015
First Angels Jamaica, a new Jamaican angel investor network, was officially launched today in Kingston. The network is geared towards helping growth-oriented entrepreneurs with capital and mentorship.
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9 July 2014
The Caribbean Climate Innovation Center (CCIC) — a project of the World Bank and its global entrepreneurship program infoDev — has announced the 11 winners of its first regional Proof of Concept (PoC) competition. The successful applicants will receive grants of up to $50,000 to develop, test, and commercialize innovative, locally relevant climate technology solutions.
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10 June 2014
infoDev is proud to announce the launch of the Caribbean Mobile Innovation Program (CMIP), to be held at the University of the West Indies Regional Headquarters, Mona, Jamaica on June 10, 2014.
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18 April 2014
A total of 49 women entrepreneurs took part in the three-day workshops, representing growth-oriented and innovative businesses. They underwent intensive training in grow-your-business methodology aimed at strengthening their skill sets, networking acumen and access to mentoring, markets and finance. So far, 100 innovative growth entrepreneurs have been trained since 2013.
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6 March 2014
Caribbean students and techies descended on the headquarters of the University of the West Indies at Mona for Digital Jam 3.0 "Get Up, Start Up" on March 1-2. The juried Mobile Apps competition was the culmination of months of preparation by more than 50 teams of young programmers competing for an assortment of prizes, including a top prize of USD10,000.
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28 January 2014
The Caribbean Climate Innovation Center (CCIC) — a hub designed to help clean technology ventures transform the region to a low-carbon economy and create green jobs — has launched in Freeport, Trinidad & Tobago. The business hub is now accepting applications for grants of up to $50,000.
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12 December 2013
A new report by infoDev finds that the Caribbean diaspora is a sizeable, well-educated, and affluent demographic whose large majority is interested in investing in its countries of origin. Supported by the right incentives and policies, diaspora members could play an even larger role in contributing to the region’s development.
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EPIC serves all CARICOM countries except Haiti. These countries include Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. |