Taxes and Incentives

• Zonamerica is the Colombia’s first free trade zone dedicated to services and technology and is located in Cali.

• Colombia offers Innovation Incentives benefits in Research & development (R&D). Benefits for qualified research, technological development, and innovation may be in the form of a deduction or a tax credit.

• The Economic Growth Law introduced, among others, a new employment deduction according to which employers may deduct 120% of the salary payments made to employees who are under 28 years of age.

• The Orange Law: Aimed at promoting and protecting the Colombian creative industries, the Orange Law or Ley Naranja creates incentives for startups working within these industries.

• The free trade zone (FTZ) industrial goods users and industrial service users pay CIT at a reduced rate of 20% on income earned from their FTZ operations.

• Colombia offers one of the most generous R&D tax incentives among OECD and partner economies.**

Investor Landscape

• ProColombia: Colombia’s official investment platform that brings a large amount of foreign direct investment into the region. Basing a startup in Cali will allow startups to benefit from this inflow of FDI.

• Invest Pacific: An initiative created by the cooperation of the public and private sector to promote investment in the Cali region.

• Valle INN Fund: An entrepreneurship program that provides advice and support to startups who are in the ideation stage of a business or that are just entering the market. This initiative has provided over a million dollars in seed funding and created more than 255 jobs.

• Within the education and fintech sectors, investors have funded some startup projects including Loopa and Tranqui

• Measures taken by the government, even before the pandemic, to promote the development of entrepreneurship in Colombia. Among these measures are the reduction of the nominal income rate, VAT discount for investment in capital goods, discount in the ICA on income tax and the disappearance of presumptive income.

Notable events and communities

Startup Grind Cali - global community designed to educate, inspire and connect the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Start-Upcafé - The Icesi University initiative supports young entrepreneurs by giving them the opportunity to develop their business ventures.

Capital Summit - event that brings together the main actors in the financing ecosystem, with the aim of encouraging economic reactivation and mobilizing smart impact capital.

Sistemas de Innovación - The Chamber of Commerce of Cali in alliance with Minciencias, the Government of Valle, ANDI and Fundación Universidad del Valle, joined forces to develop the program Innovation Systems.

Bloque Regional y de Congresistas del Valle del Cauca - a network to generate consensus among congressmen, and the public and private sectors of the region around an agenda for the construction of a more prosperous and competitive region.