Rayuela was the startup program of Aleph March '25, Crecimiento's bet on supporting the ecosystem's startups with accelerator-level, equity-free mentorship. The premise: targeted, relevant support that adds to each team's plan, because nobody understands where a startup is going better than its founder.
The name refers to the hopscotch game and to Cortázar's novel: a journey through stages. Its predecessor was August, the startup track of the first pop-up city.
Out of 88 applications, 49 startups were selected. They took part across six weeks, two remote and four in person, from February 17 to March 28, 2025, with a track sponsored by Lisk. The program was built around three core sessions: a mentorship Speed Dating with founders, protocols and VCs; Round Tables in small groups; and a Startup Day with speakers like Mariano Mayer (Newtopia), Manu Beaudroit (Belo), Gabriel Gruber (Exactly) and Ariel Arrieta (NXTP).
The cohort showed the ecosystem's maturity: 28 of the 49 startups were led by founders who had founded before, 12 were already generating revenue, and the leading verticals were DeFi, SaaS and real-world assets, with stablecoins and AI agents as cross-cutting bets. There were teams from Bolivia, Chile and different Argentine provinces: four received travel grants.
The program closed with a Demo Day before a jury of investors. The winners were BuFi, Ensuro and Bondi Finance, with prizes that included Season 4 citizenships, Founder School scholarships, private mentorship and 10 thousand dollars in AWS credits. The pitches are on YouTube in full:
Rayuela also left proof that the ecosystem's journey works end to end: Tomi, BuFi's Ecuadorian founder, arrived at a Crecimiento hackathon, met his co-founder during Aleph de Verano, went through Founder School and ended up winning Rayuela.
