IDB Lab, the innovation and venture capital arm of the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB Group), has announced the five women-led startups that have won the WeXchange Women STEMpreneurs 2025 competition. These entrepreneurs will showcase their solutions at the WeXchange Demo Day on December 2 in San Salvador, El Salvador, as part of the IDB Group’s flagship GET Forum on innovation and technology for development.
WeXchange is a platform that connects women entrepreneurs in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) across Latin America and the Caribbean. The 2025 competition received over 400 applications from 35 countries, covering sectors such as edtech, healthtech, fintech, software as a service, biotech, climatetech, agtech, and e-commerce. The selection process was led by venture capital fund AVP Ventures and involved more than 86 judges from 59 organizations, including 52 investment funds from across the region.
The winning startups are poised to raise capital or are already in fundraising mode. Musa, based in Peru, is an AI-powered, omnichannel learning platform that operates on WhatsApp, training workers and communities from the ground up. To date, it has reached over 500,000 learners with a completion rate exceeding 90%, partnering with businesses and NGOs to close educational gaps. Uruguay’s Polymera is a biotechnology startup that produces biodegradable superabsorbent materials for diapers, sanitary products, and incontinence supplies, reducing up to 50 percent of the plastic footprint without compromising performance or cost. Quipu from Colombia is a fintech company using AI to provide fair credit to informal workers who are excluded from the financial system, analyzing SMS, social media, and video data to generate credit profiles and offering both direct loans and licensing its technology to banks and cooperatives. Oncoliq, based in Argentina, is developing AI-driven blood tests using polymerase chain reaction technology for the early detection of multiple types of cancer, aiming to reduce mortality and healthcare costs. Finally, Jamaica’s Pathogenix combines AI with nanobiosensor technology to detect airborne pathogens and pollutants such as type A flu, Legionella, formaldehyde, and volatile organic compounds while also purifying the air rapidly.
The WeXchange platform provides women entrepreneurs with opportunities to network, access mentorship, and participate in training. At GET Forum, the winners will present their solutions in a plenary session, gaining significant visibility in front of investors and stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem of Latin America and the Caribbean. The platform is supported by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), which empowers women-led startups across the region to scale their solutions and drive inclusive economic growth.
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