Ruta N

History

Corporation Ruta-N was founded in 2010, conceived by then-mayor Alonso Salazar, and inspired by the success of Barcelona's Distrito 22@. Ruta-N's first years were led by its inaugural director Juan Pablo Ortega, an MIT alumni who, prior to serving as director, worked for EPM and served as a professor of entrepreneurship and investment at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and the Universidad Católica de Oriente. Originally, Hewlett-Packard was slated to invest in Ruta-N and persist as a long-term partner, with permanent residency in one of the three buildings. However, citing financial and logistical difficulties, the company officially exited its prior agreement with the city of Medellín in June 2015.

In an effort to create a favorable environment for investment and entrepreneurship in the city, Ruta-N contains a landing program that provides young companies with office space, utilities, and conference rooms at a subsidized cost. In November 2015 there were 84 companies in Ruta-N's landing program. However, by September 2016 there were more than 141 companies from a combined 23 different countries, directly resulting in 2111 new jobs in the city since 2012 alone.

Yuxi Pacific was the first company to successfully exit Ruta-N's landing program with a successful acquisition. Founded by serial entrepreneur Michael Puscar, Yuxi Pacific used Ruta-N's offices to grow to over 100 full-time employees before being acquired in June 2013 by Cincinnati-based Blue Loop Capital. Other successful companies that have been a part of Ruta-N's landing program include SproutLoud, XQuire, Idiomotion and Back2U.

On February 10, 2016, recently inaugurated mayor Federico Gutiérrez appointed Alejandro Franco as the new director of Ruta-N.

Ruta-N is in active competition with other major cities and programs in Central and South America to be known as the Silicon Valley of Latin America. Other programs with whom Ruta-N compete include Start-Up Chile, 500 Startups Mexico and Start-Up Brasil.

Offerings

Ruta-N serves a variety of roles, accompanying early stage companies through the entire lifecycle from product development through seed investment and formulates community and network events to connect those entrepreneurs with venture capitalists and investment firms. This community includes alliances with various universities and the Red de Capital Inteligente (Intelligent Capital Network), a group of more than 30 investment groups in Colombia that meet and collaborate to grow the ecosystem of entrepreneurship in the city.

In addition, Ruta-N manages a wide variety of "convocatorias" (public grants) to help bootstrap young companies and provide training programs. According to Juan Camilo Quintero, Ruta-N's director from August 2013 to February 2016, the goal of these convocatorias is to nurture entrepreneurs and stimulate ideas that are reproducible in the marketplace.

The Ruta-N Complex

The Ruta-N Complex was designed as an eco-friendly building, with a sustainable design and construction materials made with recyclable material. The building is complete with offices, expansive conference areas, restaurants, and a rooftop terrace with a view of the city. The design focuses upon collaboration and has several areas that can be used by entrepreneurs to share ideas and form alliances. It is the first public building in Colombia with LEED gold category certification.

Ruta-N Innovation District

Medellín's innovation district is a strategy of social, urban and economic transformation that seeks to convert the city into the capital of innovation in Latin America. The district includes 44,905 square meters of infrastructure, created specifically to house both national and international companies from advanced, high-tech sectors.