J I Ventures
コロンビア編Part ２：

Colombian Industry 4.0 services
take over the world
ProColombia（コロンビア投資貿易観光振興機構）
前号に続き、JOI Venturesコロンビア編をお届けします。コロンビアは「The Global Entrepreneurship
Index 2019」でラテンアメリカにおいて３位にランクインしました。今号は、コロンビアにおけるインダストリー4.0の概要および関連IT企業をご紹介します。

Colombia’s Industry 4.0 popularity abroad isundeniable, not only reflected in the figures,
but also in the recognition that this sector’sexporting companies have recently enjoyed.
Along with agriculture, sales of services abroad
led the way in 2019.
Between January and October 2020, exports in thissector reached US $324 million, with sales from 14
Colombian departments reaching 80 markets,according to company reports sent to ProColombia.
In 2019, this figure totaled US $446.7 million.
In this period of 2020, the United States, Uruguay,Argentina, and Spain purchased the most Industry
4.0 services, while the leading exporting
departments were Bogotá, Antioquia, andAtlántico. The leading subsectors for exports wereIT software and services, BPO, health services,and audiovisual production.
“Industry 4.0’s popularity confirms the prime
position that the sector’s companies hold at theinternational level, due to their quality, talent,creativity, and high standards of innovation.
ProColombia will continue to support this sector,
which is gaining more and more prominence innon-mining and non-energy exports and which also
has great growth potential with the Fourth IndustrialRevolution. By 2022, our goal is for Colombia tobe among the top 20 countries who export services,”
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2020.11stated Flavia Santoro, ProColombia president.
Santoro added that the facts confirm the sector’s
popularity: Colombia represents 13.4% of BPO
sales in the region, making it third in Latin America;
Colombia is positioned as the fourth largest IT
market in the region after Brazil, Mexico, andChile; and the Colombian video game market is thefourth largest in Latin America.
PSL
https://www.pslcorp.com/
Exporters of Colombia’s Industry 4.0 services havealso paved their own way by garnering recognition.
Such is the case for PSL, an Antioquia softwaredevelopment company, who was named one of thehundred best companies worldwide by theInternationalAssociationofOutsourcing
Professionals (IAOP)—for the third consecutive year.
“Being on this list for the third consecutive yearboosts our international exposure and credibility,
given that it is a panel of experts—which includes
large, well-renowned companies—that makes theselection,” stated Alejandro Vásquez, PSL’s vicepresident of business development. Currently PSL
is focused on expanding its exports throughout theUnited States, where they have already made aname for themselves in New York and San Francisco.
IAOP’s CEO Debi Hamill affirmed, “Buyers
understand that there are hundreds of options forsoftware development services out there, but what
they must now understand is what makes each oneexceptional. The Global Outsourcing list has done
exactly that. We are proud to recognize PSL among

ProColombia

this year's companies.”
The Antioquia-based firm is currently developing
projects in analytics, machine learning, and cloud
applications, among other services. They are also
developing applications for self-driving, such as
more accurate maps, as well as programmatic
advertising with a software for social media.
Atlantic International BPO
https://www.aib.com.co/en/
Furthermore, the multinational company located inBarranquilla Atlantic International BPO received
the Silver award for “Best Operation of an
Outsourcing Company” in Latin America, grantedby the Latin American Alliance of Customer
Interaction Organization at the Latam Awards. Acompany spokesperson stated, “Our main objective
this year is to continue to expand our services inthe healthcare sector in the United States andPanama, as well as enter Central Americancountries such as Guatemala, Honduras, andNicaragua.” Atlantic International BPO currently
serves Panama, Mexico, United States, Canada,and Puerto Rico in the telecommunications, health,public services, transportation, and retail sectors.
Omniconhttp://www.omnicon.cc/
Similarly, Omnicon—a Cali-based company that
focuses on software development and process
automation, and which has received ProColombia
support—was recognized by the United States
Control Systems Integrators Association when
Omnicon CEO Eduardo Acosta was granted theCharlie Bergman “Remember Me” Award.
Omnicon works with multinational companies
with multiple plants worldwide and has carried out
projects in over 500 plants in 65 countries outsideof Colombia. Omnicon’s main clients include
Cargill, Tate & Lyle, Stepan, Unilever, Nestle,Dow, Uniphos, Chevron, and Johnson & Johnson,
among others.

“Our goal—to reach US $70 million in exports in 5years or less—is named the Omnicon MEGA
(acronym for Large and Ambitious Strategic Goal,in Spanish). It emerged from a collaborative
strategic process with ProColombia in the 3E
program (Empresas de Excelencia Exportadora)
and the Cali Chamber of Commerce’s Innovation
program with the consulting firm 10X. Omnicon isconfident in its team’s ability; despite the current
difficult situation worldwide, we will reach ourgoal,” stated Eduardo Acosta, Omnicon CEO.
Innovative Education
Finally, the Pereira-based company Innovative
Education—which developed a virtual laboratory
software that is exported to 19 countries—wasselected as Latin America’s best EdTech startup andwent on to become a finalist in the Global EdTech
Startups Awards (GESA) in London earlier this year.
Rappi
https://www.rappi.com/
Among these successful exporters companies,
there is Rappi, the first Colombian unicorn which
exported a revolutionary concept with presence
today in about 10 countries in Latin America, with
the idea of taking the services of purchase-delivery
and domiciles to another level. The Japanese firm
Softbank invested US$ 1 billion.
This has been the largest investment of this type fora Latin American technology company. US $ 500
million will arrive from the SoftBank Innovation
Fund for Latin America and another US $ 500
million from Vision Fund, which has previously
invested in companies such as Uber and WeWork.
お問い合わせJOI 事業企画部

E-mail: bd@joi.or.jp 、TEL: 03-5210-3311

ProColombia（コロンビア投資貿易観光振興機構）
外国直接投資・観光担当 玉城 瞳子
E-mail: ttamaki@procolombia.co

2020.1133