ventureLAB Hosts Costa Rican Trade Minister, Manuel Tovar, to Advance Global Opportunities for Canadian Semiconductor Innovators

On December 6, 2023, ventureLAB hosted Honorary Manuel Tovar, Costa Rica's Minister of Foreign Trade, and delegates, for a strategic roundtable, bringing together leaders from Canadian scale-ups in hardtech. The focus was on exploring global opportunities in the semiconductor industry to enhance market expansion and attract investments for ventureLAB's founders.

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The Minister heard directly from representatives of Hygienic Echo and VCycene, two ventureLAB portfolio companies, who share an aligned vision of advancing technological innovation and aim to position Canada as a leader in the global supply chain. 

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“We want to move from plantain chips to microchips,” said Costa Rica’s Minister of Foreign Trade, Manuel Tovar. “ Costa Rica has witnessed major success in the medical device cluster and we are committed to having the same success within the semiconductor sector.”

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Minister Tovar underscored key factors that make Costa Rica an attractive destination for businesses, including its strategic geographical location, political stability, robust education system, competitive incentives, and commitment to green energy. Recognizing shared values, ventureLAB and Costa Rica view this collaboration as a regional opportunity, leveraging the abundant STEM talent present in both countries. Costa Rica's investment in STEM education and initiatives has resulted in a pool of highly qualified professionals. By leveraging this expertise, Canada and Costa Rica will foster knowledge exchange, collaboration and drive advancements in the semiconductor industry.

Minister Tovar continued to highlight Costa Rica and Canada’s opportunity to be part of the solution and the success of semiconductors, by packaging, distributing, designing, and testing together.

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“We’ve seen today how crucial it is to exchange views and found that we have many partners in common like Intel. Costa Rica is becoming a major player in the semiconductor industry and sees Canada as an important stakeholder,” said Sophia Chan-Combrink, VP, Strategy & Stakeholder Engagement at ventureLAB. “This prominence is demonstrated with the US partnering with Costa Rica to boost the semi ecosystem and we look forward to collaborating between the two countries to support our ecosystem, our region and our global supply chain.”

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Intel, having established its presence in Costa Rica in the late 1990s, has made substantial investments, creating job opportunities in the country. ventureLAB also recently signed a strategic collaboration with Intel for 2024, focusing on exploring prospective ventures, facilitating knowledge sharing, and promoting technology exchange to empower startups and entrepreneurs.

The collaborative efforts between ventureLAB, Canadian scale-ups, and Costa Rica represent a significant stride toward fostering global partnerships in the semiconductor domain, providing a robust platform for innovation, growth, and shared success.

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About ventureLAB

ventureLAB is a leading global founder community for hardware technology and enterprise software companies in Canada. Located at the heart of Ontario’s innovation corridor in York Region, ventureLAB is part of one of the biggest and most diverse tech communities in Canada. Our initiatives focused on raising capital, talent retention, commercializing technology and IP, and customer acquisition have enabled thousands of companies to create over 4,500 jobs and raise more than $250 million in investment capital. At ventureLAB, we grow globally competitive tech titans that build-to-scale in Canada, for global markets.