Introduction
Odisea Labs is a venture studio and innovation lab bridging the Latin American innovation gap in crypto. We aim to introduce emerging technologies to Latin America and catalyze the growth of pioneering builders in the region. We achieve this by:
1. Research - produce high-quality cutting-edge research on crypto adoption, opportunities, and challenges in the region.
2. Scaling - work with leading startups and established foundations to scale their regional presence by tapping them into local developer communities, governments, and other key partners.
3. Media - create content at the forefront of crypto adoption in the region and work with our top-tier partners to establish a strong presence across LatAm's audiences.
4. Build - lastly, our venture studio and fund is where we scale the most promising startups in the region by providing them access to technical talent, regulatory guidance, key partnerships, mentors, and capital.
This litepaper outlines the current challenges for crypto adoption in Latin America, our thesis on overcoming the innovation gap, and our activations to foster a wave of crypto adoption in Latin America and beyond.
Crypto in LatAm
Latin America presents a unique amalgamation of socio-economic conditions ripe for the adoption of crypto. Economic volatility, centralized power, and weak institutions have paved the way for a pressing need to build the foundation for more decentralized pillars for our societies. Today, noteworthy milestones in the region’s crypto ecosystem include:
El Salvador's pioneering move to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender and hold Bitcoin on its balance sheet.
Argentina's emergence as a nexus for crypto developers and leading projects in the space.
Prospera, in Honduras, is becoming a hub of crypto innovation and one of the fastest-growing network states.
Some of the world’s highest rates of crypto adoption in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, as highlighted by Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption index.
A burgeoning community of crypto enthusiasts and developers across the region, eager for knowledge and participation.
Problem
Despite the palpable need and enthusiasm for crypto in Latin America, a significant gap exists for achieving greater levels of adoption and development throughout the region, namely the following:
Limited local knowledge and partnerships for global partners, restricting their presence and opportunity to scale in the region.
Lack of global and local capital investing in the region's most promising startups.
Despite having an incredibly talented developer base, many promising builders lack the necessary acumen, community, networks, and capital to bring their projects to market.
Lack of regulatory clarity throughout the region leaves regulators and builders unsure of where the frontier of innovation stands.
Few pathways for talented developers to transition towards crypto and build projects in their respective interest areas.
Poorly informed local communities who are unsure of crypto's opportunity in the region.
Odisea’s Mission
To address these compounding challenges, Odisea Labs brings comprehensive solutions to unlock crypto's potential in LatAm. We collaborate with the region's most promising startups, thought leaders, regulators, funders, developers, civil society, and other key partners to create an ecosystem fueled by innovation and disruption. To that end, we focus on the following activations:
Research
Objective: To generate actionable insights into the adoption, opportunities, and challenges of crypto and blockchain in Latin America.
Conduct comprehensive studies on crypto market trends, user demographics, and adoption barriers.
Collaborate with academic institutions and industry experts to enrich research quality and reach.
Utilize findings to inform stakeholders and guide strategic decisions in the crypto ecosystem.
Scaling
Objective: To amplify the impact of global startups and established foundations in Latin America by integrating them with local ecosystems.
Facilitate partnerships between startups/foundations and local developers, governmental bodies, and corporations.
Offer mentorship and resources to startups for navigating regulatory environments and cultural nuances.
Organize workshops and networking events to foster community engagement and collaborative opportunities.
Media
Objective: To lead content creation that educates, informs, and stimulates dialogue around crypto adoption in the region.
Produce high-quality, accessible content, including articles, videos, and podcasts, that addresses key topics in crypto.
Partner with media platforms with substantial reach across Latin America to disseminate content widely.
Engage with the community through social media, webinars, and live events to encourage active discussion and feedback.
Build
Objective: Leverage our venture studio as a platform to support and co-develop the most promising startups by providing them with all of the necessary resources to scale successfully.
Offer technical expertise and development resources for both short-term and long-term project collaborations.
Work across various domains within the crypto space, focusing on real-world utility coupled with cutting-edge technology.
Utilize our network's resources and partnerships to foster more high-growth and impactful projects to emerge from the region.
Who We Work With
Odisea Labs collaborates with a diverse set of partners, ranging from DeFi applications to infrastructure and educational tools, each of whom are key players in the global crypto ecosystem. Previously we’ve collaborated with: Liquity, Zash, the Ethereum Foundation, Celo, Safe, Lens, Aave Grants DAO, clr.fund, Filecoin, ENS DAO, Ambire, among others. Outside of the crypto ecosystem we’ve worked with the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the Ford Foundation, among other leading research and impact-led organizations.
Get Involved
Odisea, or odyssey in English, represents a long and exciting journey. Our path is one that leads to self-sovereign futures where ownership, governance, economics, finance, and culture are backed by cryptography and not the evident corruption that has plagued Latin America for centuries. If you are called to this mission, please connect with us via email, Telegram, and subscribe to our Paragraph below.
