Looking Back & Leaping Forward: The parallel18 Vision
As we step into 2025, we’re so excited to celebrate a significant milestone: 10 years of parallel18! This past decade we’ve grown from a pioneering accelerator in Puerto Rico to a global force supporting startups at every step of their journey. This new year promises to be full of celebration, hard work, and witnessing our startup alumni thrive! From expanding our team to kicking off new cohorts of our programs, the future looks brighter than ever. Dive into what’s in store!
Strengthening the parallel18 team!
Let’s start with the rockstars, because we’re all about seeing our team grow and reach their full potential! This past year, both of our awesome Startup Executives stepped into new amazing roles: Daliana Colón as Corporate Relations Lead and Yessica Fontánez as Investments Analyst. Additionally, Gabriela Alicea, our former Operations Coordinator, has been promoted to Startup Specialist! Kudos to all of you!
On the other hand, our team keeps growing and growing! This year, we were thrilled to welcome Bianca Corujo as our Ventures Manager, Jamie Rodota as Senior Portfolio Manager, Laura Díaz as Startup Specialist for BioLeap, and, last but not least, Carol Ramos as our Marketing and Communications Manager. We’re so excited to continue advancing our mission of fostering a complete growth cycle for startups worldwide with the addition of these new team members!
#10YearsOfParallel18: we’ve come so far this past decade!
If our team grows, parallel18 grows! Looking back to 2015, Puerto Rico achieved a major milestone that would forever change the startup ecosystem: the inception of parallel18 as the first startup accelerator on the island. This was possible thanks to the unwavering support of our matrix organization Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust and the visionary leadership of Sebastián Vidal as parallel18’s first Executive Director and the Trust’s CEO, Eng. Lucy Crespo.
At the time, parallel18 was focused exclusively on P18, an acceleration curriculum for underrepresented founders from around the world. Over the years, the island’s startup ecosystem has evolved and so have we — now, we offer entrepreneurial support for every step of a founder’s journey.
Starting with pre18, a pre-acceleration program that empowers Puerto Rican entrepreneurs to successfully launch their solutions; with BioLeap, supporting Life Sciences startups; and finishing off with Xpand that provides technical assistance and resources to successfully scale into new markets.
As a result of our ongoing efforts over the past decade, we’ve channeled $15M+ (USD) in equity-free funding and supported more than 400 local and international entrepreneurs that have generated more than $400M (USD) in revenue.
In other words, there’s so much to celebrate and reminisce about our trajectory!
Our programs are ready to take on a new year!
The start of the year is shaping up to be a busy one! First off, we’re more than ready to welcome our seventh generation of local entrepreneurs. Pre18 will support 24 boricua startups to successfully launch into the market. Furthermore, this cohort will receive a $25,000 (USD) equity-free grant, business connections, and entrepreneurial education during the 12-week curriculum.
Meanwhile, BioLeap will announce their second cohort very soon. This new generation of Life Science projects will be starting mid-February in their incubation curriculum. With a 14-week period of technical assistance, the selected projects will follow a structured path towards successful commercialization.
Xpand will also be kicking off their next group of growth-stage companies this February! This cohort will have access to the P18 Matching Fund, an investment opportunity of $100,000 (USD), among other key resources to help them achieve a sustainable expansion.
For our international acceleration program, P18… Applications will open in April! If you’re looking for the #WorkHardPlayTropical opportunity, be on the lookout for the official dates coming out soon!
Lastly, Challenge to Innovate: Project Switch will be back this Summer! Parallel18 is one of five incubators in the U.S. and its territories selected as Phase 2 winners of the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC) Round 3. With this $1M (USD) federal funding, Project Switch will support its next cohort of innovative clean energy projects! (Stay tuned for more details on this!).
And there you have it! That’s our overview on how our year will begin. Our team is excited and ready for what’s to come– we hope you all have an amazing 2025 ahead too!
FYI: Stay tuned to our social media channels Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin to stay up to date with our open application processes, alumni highlights, and other initiatives that will kick off.
