Banco Nación’s headquarters, in the historic center of Buenos Aires, filled on the night of October 30 with founders, investors, and executives from the Argentine entrepreneurial ecosystem. Amid speeches and applause, Fundación Banco Nación and Endeavor Argentina closed out the third edition of the Innovation with Impact Award, a competition that since its creation has sought to find, among hundreds of startups, those capable of translating technology into concrete results for the country’s economy.
The road to that evening had begun months earlier, with a call for applications that ended up surpassing the two previous editions: 550 startups applied, a record for the contest. Of that pool, only eight reached the final stage and had the opportunity to present their projects in person to the jury waiting for them at the bank’s own headquarters. Fintech, employability, and agtech were the sectors that concentrated the finalists, a sample of the diversity of areas where innovation with measurable impact is being sought today.
The selection criteria
The jury evaluated the finalists based on their ability to scale the business, generate measurable economic impact, and sustain a model with concrete results among customers, beyond the product development stage. Among the eight finalists, the award ultimately went to a proposal focused on the technological modernization of the financial system.
The winning company
The winner was N5, a company that develops a platform for banks, insurers, and other financial institutions to update their systems without replacing the technology core they already have installed, adding business modules and artificial intelligence agents on top of that existing infrastructure. According to the information provided, the company has a presence in 18 countries and works with institutions such as Santander, Mastercard, Itaú, Zurich, and Banco do Brasil, where it reports a 53% increase in commercial productivity. This combination of regional scale, major clients, and measurable results was, according to the award’s organizers, what tipped the jury’s decision among the 550 applicants.
What the award includes
As part of the recognition, the winner receives USD 15,000 to invest in developing and scaling its project, strategic mentoring from the Endeavor network, and access to Banco Nación’s business network, with the stated goal of supporting the growth of technology companies with potential in the Argentine economy.
