Erick Melgar, General Manager at Progreso X sat down with us the 2022 Americas Summit that took place this last September in Chicago, IL for a one-on-one conversation to discuss what most excited him about the industry and what the current state of construction in Latin America looks like and what insights he has for what the future holds.

Progreso X is the corporate accelerator arm of Progreso – one of the largest cement companies in all of Latin America that has been around for over 120 years. Progreso X began its mission of connecting startups to Progreso three years ago.

Melgar says that what currently excites him the most is the co-op water projects they are working on throughout Latin America. Melgar says that in a lot of regions in Latin America, residents of villages and cities in rural areas do not have easy access to clean water and often find themselves walking miles to get water that isn’t potable, only to have to return to their homes to filter it, carrying the weight the entire time. They have been working with startups from the Netherlands, Kenya, and Chile to attempt to solve this incredibly important issue that has been a huge issue for rural areas all throughout Latin America.

Along with the water technology projects, Melgar also says he feels like one of the most exciting and important developments from a tech standpoint in the industry is the idea of prefabrication and modularization and the ability to have offsite construction in order to be more efficient with precious time and resources.

Progreso X will also be in attendance at our upcoming Venture East Conference taking place on November 15-16 in Miami, FL where Melgar’s fellow Progreso X representative, Gabriela Rodas, Project Manager at Progreso X will be taking part in a panel discussion about the current state of the built world in Latin America where she will be joined by Chris Anderson, Founder & CEO, Vantem Global, and Bernardo Gamboa, Partner, Global Project Strategy.

Click here to get more information about Venture East and to register or purchase tickets.

Associated Members