CE 2025 Annual Results Report web

DIGITAL HORIZONS:

UNLOCKING INNOVATION, INCLUSION AND COMPETITIVENESS

A flagship component of this outreach was the organisation of Digital Connectors Jamaica between May and June 2025. This included a series of virtual webinars that attracted more than 500 participants, followed by in-person workshops and Startup Clinics specifically designed to connect Jamaican startups with live innovation challenges published by European and Latin American corporates on the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator B2Match platform. These clinics functioned not as general ecosystem events, but as direct onboarding mechanisms into the Accelerator’s open innovation pipeline. In 2025, the Caribbean’s participation in the programme marked a decisive turning point. Five corporate startup partnerships involving Caribbean firms were successfully concluded, moving beyond dialogue and matchmaking into concrete co-creation processes between corporates and innovators. These partnerships enabled Caribbean startups to engage directly with firms as solution providers to real innovation challenges, while allowing Caribbean corporates to adopt open innovation practices that are common in European and Latin American markets but still emerging in the region. This milestone demonstrated, in practical terms, how firms from the Caribbean can plug into global open innovation systems, not as observers but as active contributors. Through these engagements, participating firms gained exposure to new business models, collaborative product development approaches, and international market pathways. More importantly, it validated that Caribbean enterprises can compete, collaborate, and co-develop solutions within transcontinental innovation ecosystems, positioning the region not only as a beneficiary of innovation support but as a credible partner in global digital transformation processes. Partnership Highlights A notable achievement was the continued strengthening of the Agency’s partnership ecosystem. In early 2025, Caribbean Export formalised a Memorandum of Understanding with the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), enabling deeper collaboration on innovation financing and ecosystem development. Additional support was delivered through the processing of a grant for ID‑MAPS, further demonstrating the Agency’s commitment to resource mobilisation for digital transformation. This partnership represents the first arrangement within the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator consortium that mobilises dedicated funding in direct support of the programme’s objectives. Through this MOU, DBJ committed grant resources under its BIGEE programme to financially support Jamaican startups selected through the Accelerator for corporate partnerships. This addressed one of the key structural barriers identified in the programme: the financing gap that often prevents startups from fully engaging in corporate venturing processes. The agreement therefore moved Caribbean Export’s role from facilitation of open innovation to the financial enablement of open innovation participation for Caribbean startups. The Agency also advanced multiple corporate–startup matchmaking efforts and provided mentoring to several partnerships, leveraging regional and extra‑regional networks. This included collaboration with startups such as Digi Learnnials and Dingole, both of which participated in EU‑LAC Digital Accelerator Proof‑of‑Concept workshop aimed at validating VR‑based cognitive health solutions within the Panjam+ platform, a project demonstrating the potential of immersive technologies in health innovation. A similar approach was implemented in the Dominican Republic through a partnership with Boost Acceleration Camp during Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Five corporate startup partnerships involving Caribbean firms were successfully concluded, moving beyond dialogue and matchmaking into concrete co-creation processes between corporates and innovators.

CARIBBEAN EXPORT ANNUAL RESULTS REPORT 2025 | 35