Profiles of main tech parks, accelerators, hackathons
Two main tech parks stand out in El Salvador: The first one deals in Agro Industry and manages research, development and innovation activities in the sector, integrating the government, private operators and the academia. While the Technological Park in Science and Engineering offers physical locations to promote applied research, technology transfer, companies accelerations and enabling the exchange of knowledge between companies and academia.
A noticeable private initiative was HackTurSV 2017, the gathering of 100 youngsters from different regions of El Salvador who accepted the challenge of spread in real time the touristic offer from El Salvador. Two projects were selected: IWANNA and TURISTIC. Each one received US$5,000 to develop and implement their idea. This hackathon was held in Partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
In 2018 an important hackathon was also Cihuahack. In this event 200 young software developers from El Salvador spent two full days to create Virtual and Augmented Reality Technologies related to the Archeological Park of Cihuatán. The winners received mentorship for one year, the chance to be part of a business incubator and an internship in the USA.
Germina is the most known business incubator and accelerator. They specialise in Information and Communications Technologies projects and recently the have extended their focus also to companies developing alternative energies. Guíame, was another business incubator and accelerator in El Salvador, part of the Entrepreneurial Foundation for the Educational Development (FEPADE), located in Santa Tecla.