The Caribbean Export Development Agency, representing the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator, participated in Boostcamp 2025 Founders’ Day, an initiative organized by Boost Acceleration Camp, one of Dominican Republic’s most prominent startup accelerators. In its first day, the event placed the spotlight in the startup community and amassed more than 100 founders, entrepreneurs, and innovation leaders from the Dominican Republic, Central America, and the Caribbean. Under the banner of “Growth Edition” Boostcamp 2025 focused on providing a full day of training, networking, and investment-readiness activities for the bustling startup community in the DR and the wider Latin American and Caribbean region.

Kicking off Caribbean Export’s intervention the agenda was Damie Sinanan, Executive Director, who underscored the importance of entrepreneurship, digital transformation, and expanded access to finance—key themes aligned with his broader BOOSTcamp message. “The Caribbean’s entrepreneurs are shaping the region’s next stage of economic growth,” said Dr. Sinanan. “By strengthening digital capabilities, improving access to finance, and forging new cross-regional partnerships, we are helping our startups scale, innovate, and compete on the global stage.”

The cornerstone of this activation was the presentation of the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator, a programme financed by the European Union under the Global Gateway Investment Agenda and implemented by an international consortium led by Tecnalia and supported regionally by Caribbean Export. Leo Naut, Deputy Executive Director, explained how the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator creates pathways for startups to collaborate directly with corporates across Europe and Latin America, co-develop digital solutions, and access new international markets through structured open innovation processes.

This Founders’ Day is part of a broader two-day BOOSTcamp 2025 programme, which also includes Investors & Corporates Day on November 27. Caribbean Export will represent the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator in this Investors & Corporates Day by moderating a panel with top Dominican corporates on corporate venturing, open innovation, and opportunities for startup-corporate collaboration.

Caribbean Export Hosts Live Startup Clinic During Founders Day

As part of its participation, Caribbean Export also hosted a live Startup Clinic, where the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator programme team held one-on-one meetings with local startups, led by Michelle Aybar, Technical Officer for EU-LAC Programmes and Leo Naut, Deputy Executive Director, who also serves as Programme Manager for the Accelerator at Caribbean Export. These sessions enabled startups to provide deeper insights into their capabilities to the Digital Accelerator team with the aim to connect with current corporate innovation challenges that are live within the programme. With this deeper engagement, the Digital Accelerator team at Caribbean Export aims to assist and provide the adequate support to startups to identify the actual business opportunities with corporates across the EU-LAC network.