Progreso X tests before investing in Guatemala’s nascent market

Guatemala’s startup ecosystem is expanding—StartupBlink estimates it grew by more than 12% between 2024 and 2025 to around 55 companies—but it remains a modest outpost compared with Latin America’s larger venture markets. Yet scarcity, as ever, breeds experimentation. In Guatemala, that experimentation is taking a distinctive form: a venture clienting model that begins not with capital, but with customers.

At the centre of this approach sits Progreso X, the open innovation arm of industrial conglomerate Progreso, whose main business is in the production of cement and construction materials, but also has business in real estate development, agriculture and energy . Fresh from its latest fund-of-funds investment, the unit is advancing a strategy that looks, at first glance, like a conventional corporate venturing stack – accelerate, pilot, invest. In practice, it is something more deliberate: a pipeline designed to de-risk innovation by validating startups through commercial engagement before any capital is deployed.

When Progreso X launched in 2019, it faced a familiar dilemma. Should it invest directly, as some corporate peers had done, or first learn how to work with startups?

“At the time, we didn’t know what it was like to work with startups, if it would actually create value for the business, and we wanted to build the knowhow,” says Gabriela Rodas, Progreso X’s head of open innovation.

Two paths presented themselves: collaboration or capital. Unlike Cemex Ventures – which had begun with equity investments – Progreso X opted to start as a venture client. The logic was straightforward. In a market with limited venture-scale startups, writing cheques is less useful than becoming an early customer.

The result is a model that reorders the typical corporate venture sequence. Rather than sourcing startups primarily for investment, Progreso X first sources solutions to internal business needs, matches them with external technologies, and runs structured pilots. Only later – once a startup has proven both its technical capability and organisational fit – does it become a candidate for investment through PX Ventures, the venture investment arm launched in 2024.

This is venture clienting in its pure form: using procurement, partnerships and real-world deployment as the primary filter for innovation, with investment as a downstream option rather than the starting point.

“We’ve been able to bring in a mindset to the corporate of learning and failing fast,” says Rodas. “Not every success story is a success because it continues, but also because we’ve recognised when to not invest further in something that won’t grow.”

The team sources companies through a few avenues – the first is the Exponential Changemakers programme, an annual global call Progreso X makes for strategically-fit startup technologies. It can also source more directly: in response to a specified need from a business unit, Progreso X can leverage its network to play matchmaker and find the right tech.

The discipline is notable. Corporate venture units are sometimes criticised for loose selection criteria and strategic drift. Progreso X, by contrast, applies a filter at each stage: accelerator, pilot, go-to-market, then investment.

“We’ve been able to show that this can be a two-way learning system between startups and business units,” says Rodrigo Zetina, who leads PX Ventures.

Of roughly 10 startups that reach its accelerator demo day annually, about three progress to pilots. Fewer still make it to scaling – and only then are they considered for equity. Currently, the portfolio has roughly six companies actively in pilot stage, and one startup is through to the scaling stage.

The portfolio includes startups like Peruvian B2B sales platform provider for manufacturers Riqra, Spanish data analytics platform for logistics and procurement Beawre, and Danish advanced construction materials developer 3DCP. The portfolio also includes three Argentinian startups: Terrand and Bimtrazer, which are respectively platform providers for occupational health and operational management, and Hauzd, a 3D marketing and sales platform provider for real estate.

Accelerate, client, invest

Progreso’s venture clienting model is not unique, but it is unusually well adapted to its environment. Guatemala’s entrepreneurial base is broad but shallow. “Guatemala is known for having a high rate of entrepreneurship, but much of this activity is concentrated in small and medium-sized businesses rather than startups built on science, technology and innovation,” says Sheidy Li, networking and relationship manager at Progreso X. “One of the key challenges has been the lack of alignment among the main actors that enable innovation-driven entrepreneurship.”

In richer ecosystems, venture capital can afford to select from a large pool of venture-ready companies. In Guatemala, that pool scarcely exists. Progreso X’s response is to work with what is available – using its role as a customer to test, shape and validate startups in real operating conditions.

This stands in contrast to other approaches in the region. Some corporates, such as Cemex Ventures, began with direct investment, effectively importing innovation by backing startups abroad. Others experiment with venture building, creating companies internally, or combine minority investments with looser partnership models.

Choosing commercial validation first and capital deployment second has also bought it internal legitimacy. Innovation units often enjoy an initial “honeymoon period” before being forced to justify their existence. Rodas notes that even after that “lifejacket” was removed, Progreso X had built sufficient credibility to stand on its own. Early support from Progreso’s leadership helped, but so did tangible results: pilots that translated into operational improvements, and learnings that were beneficial to business units.

Mixing in LP investments

Over time, PX Ventures plans to invest roughly the same into LP positions as in direct investments. Its first investment came before the unit was even set up, when Progreso X backed the inaugural fund of Zacua Ventures, the construction-focused VC co-founded by Cemex Ventures alumni, which was rolled into the PX Ventures portfolio once the investment unit had been established.

More recently, it backed Boston-based MET Fund, which invests in MIT design and engineering startups, and recently finalised its commitment to Zacua Ventures’ second fund.

In January, PX Ventures also took its first direct minority stake in Uptime Analytics, a Colombian data analytics and AI technology developer for the industrial sector, which had been part of Progreso X’s venture clienting portfolio.

Between its venture clienting and investment arms, Progreso X focuses on pre-seed to series A startups, with flexibility to opportunistically invest at series B. The remit is global, subject only to potential time zone or language barriers.

Venture in Guatemala

The broader ambition is more systemic. Progreso X is actively working to convene the actors required for a functioning innovation ecosystem – corporates, universities, entrepreneurs, government and investors – under frameworks such as MIT REAP. In doing so, it is attempting to solve not just for its own pipeline, but for the market’s structural deficiencies.

Other corporations in Guatemala are taking similar steps. Conglomerate CMI launched its venture unit in 2023 and also does venture clienting, while steelmaker Aceros de Guatemala are active in venture building and food and beverage conglomerate Castillo Hermanos makes venture investments in startups.

The startup side is still sorely lacking, though. Unlike more developed markets in the region, Guatemala lacks the crucial early-stage angel capital to help fledgling startups gain enough traction to attract VC and CVC investors. Domestic startups can often lack formalised structure or a clear understanding of what they need beyond the pitch.

Cultural attitudes also remain stacked against founders. “Culturally, fear of failure is probably a challenge in Guatemala. What will they say if you make a startup and fail?” says Zetina.

The consequence is predictable: capital flows outward. Guatemalan corporate venture units invest abroad because there is little at home that meets their thresholds.

“Business models for Guatemalan startups need to be more robust,” says Rodas.

In ecosystems where supply is constrained, demand must do the work. By acting first as customer, then as partner, and only finally as investor, it is attempting to close the gap between local entrepreneurial energy and venture-grade opportunity.

Whether this amounts to a durable model – or merely a transitional one – will depend on how quickly the surrounding ecosystem matures. For now, Progreso X offers a pragmatic answer to a structural problem: if you cannot find startups ready for investment, work with them as a customer first – and invest only once they have proved their worth.