Montego Bay is about to transform its beachfront into a launchpad for next-gen innovation. When the Caribbean Investment Forum (CIF) convenes on July 29-31, 2025, organisers will unveil Digital Connectors—a new accelerator built to fuse Caribbean tech talent with corporations wrestling with real-world technology headaches across Latin America and Europe.
Unlike garden-variety incubators, Digital Connectors doesn’t tinker with early-stage ideas. It brokers marriages between ready-to-scale Caribbean start-ups and enterprises that have already posted their toughest challenges on the B2Match platform. Once a founder flags, “Yes, we’ve cracked that,” the accelerator’s fast-track kicks in: proof-of-concept pilots, airtight business cases, IP compliance, and investor-ready pitch prep.
Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) is steering the programme, with Spain’s powerhouse research hub TechNavia providing deep-tech muscle. Deputy Executive Director Leo Naut sums it up crisply: “We’re not accelerating companies—we’re accelerating partnerships.”
Jamaica gets first dibs. A dedicated series, Digital Connectors Jamaica, will run parallel to CIF, giving local founders floor time with the consortium and opening the door for corporations willing to crowd-source their next breakthrough.
The push comes after previous CIF editions were swamped with napkin sketches rather than bankable ventures. This year, CEDA and UNIDO have insisted on hard data—market projections, ROI models, and deployment pathways—so investors can say “yes” or “no” on the spot.
For companies bogged down by legacy tech and start-ups itching to deploy instead of demo, Digital Connectors may be the catalyst the Caribbean ecosystem has been waiting for. Corporates bring the pain points; Caribbean innovators bring the cure—and Montego Bay supplies the spark.
