Boricua Emprende Fest Brings Together 2,275 Participants and Presents a Snapshot of Entrepreneurship in Puerto Rico
The event's eighth edition, held at the Puerto Rico Convention Center, featured new opportunities, resources, experiences, and the State of Puerto Rico's Business Community 2025 report
San Juan, Puerto Rico – September 4, 2026 – 2,275 entrepreneurs, business owners, support organizations, mentors, experts, and allies of the business ecosystem gathered today at the Puerto Rico Convention Center for the eighth edition of Boricua Emprende Fest (BE Fest), an event that brought together resources, knowledge, connections, and opportunities to drive business growth in Puerto Rico.
Under the theme "Come to connect, stay to grow," BE Fest 2026 offered a day of learning, networking, and celebration of the Puerto Rican entrepreneurial spirit. The event was presented by the Fideicomiso para la Ciencia, Tecnología e Investigación de Puerto Rico and its entrepreneurship-pillar programs, Colmena66, Fase1, and parallel18, alongside Mastercard, Rural LISC, and Nest as co-presenters.
Through an agenda that included conferences, panels, conversations with entrepreneurs, mentorship sessions, and networking spaces, participants had access to tools and experts in areas such as access to capital, artificial intelligence, innovation, marketing, finance, incentives, permitting, compliance, and business growth strategies.
Standout experiences included the Mentor Hub, which connected entrepreneurs with business leaders in one-on-one sessions; Coffee Talks by Fase1, featuring open conversations with entrepreneurs and professionals from various industries; El Panal Expo, which brought together business support resources and organizations; the BE Marketplace, featuring specialized service providers; and the Pop-Up Markets, which offered a space to discover and support local brands.
One of the event's highlights was the BE Boricua Pitch Competition, in which 20 finalist entrepreneurs presented their proposals before a panel of judges and competed live for the chance to win more than $20,000 in seed capital to accelerate their business growth. The categories were as follows: Artesanos, Sabor Boricua, Ideas con Impacto, and Jóvenes con Visión. For the first time, the event also included the grand final of the Enactus Social Enterprise National Competition, which brought together the Island's top university teams presenting social enterprises that use innovation and entrepreneurship to transform communities.
As part of the programming, Puerto Rican entrepreneurs shared their growth and expansion experiences in sessions such as Growth & Scale, while the AI & Innovation component explored the impact of artificial intelligence on business operations and the future of business. The agenda also covered topics such as pricing strategies, permitting, compliance, risk management, and emerging trends in industries like food and beverage, sports, creative industries, and entertainment.
Presenting a Snapshot of Puerto Rico's Business Ecosystem
As part of the BE Fest 2026 agenda, the results of the State of Puerto Rico's Business Community 2025 were also presented — a snapshot of the island's business ecosystem based on the experience of 555 entrepreneurs and 94 business support organizations, representing 130 support programs. The data was collected through the 2025 Annual Entrepreneurship Survey, conducted by Colmena66 between September 2025 and May 2026, with support from organizations across the business ecosystem.
The study reveals that Puerto Ricans start businesses primarily after identifying an opportunity or need in the market (28.4%), followed by the desire to generate higher income (17.8%) and to contribute to their community (14.2%). Artificial intelligence, meanwhile, is gaining ground: 53.7% of business owners already use it in their businesses, and another 19.3% plan to adopt it, mainly for marketing and data analysis, process automation, and innovation.
Among the main gaps identified is access to capital. 44.9% identify traditional financing as a barrier to their development. 32.4% of business owners finance their businesses with personal savings, and 17.5% use personal credit cards, while only 3.8% have turned to commercial loans. Permitting processes also present a challenge: 26% reported taking more than six months to obtain permits, and 30.5% reported suffering financial losses during that period.
The report also reflects the growth and internationalization potential of local entrepreneurship. Although microenterprises represent the largest segment (49.9%), growth-stage companies, which make up 15.3% of the sample, generate the greatest number of jobs. Additionally, 68 participating businesses export to U.S. states and 45 to international markets, with Florida (11.2%), New York (6.64%), and Texas (6.63%) standing out domestically, along with the Dominican Republic (19.78%), Colombia (14.21%), and Mexico (10.31%) among the top international destinations.
The full State of Puerto Rico's Business Community 2025 report is available at this [LINK].
"This study gives us a clearer, data-driven picture of who is starting businesses in Puerto Rico, what motivates them, what obstacles they face, and where opportunities exist to strengthen the ecosystem. For the Fideicomiso, generating and sharing this knowledge is essential to guiding our efforts, connecting resources, and continuing to foster an environment where science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship contribute to Puerto Rico's economic development," said Lucy Crespo, Chief Executive Officer of the Fideicomiso para Ciencia, Tecnología e Investigación de Puerto Rico.
For her part, Bárbara Rivera Chinea, Executive Director of Colmena66, highlighted the importance of BE Fest as a space that continues to evolve alongside Puerto Rico's business ecosystem. "Reaching our eighth edition in the same year we celebrate Colmena66's tenth anniversary shows the strength of a business community that keeps growing, connecting, and seeking new opportunities. BE Fest was created to bring entrepreneurs closer to the resources, people, and tools they need to move forward, and eight editions later, we continue to see the value of creating a space where the whole ecosystem can come together, learn, collaborate, and celebrate what we're building together," Rivera said.
The grand closing of BE Fest 2026 featured actress and comedian Marisé Álvarez, who presented "NUNCA DIGAS NUNCA – BE Fest Edition," a stand-up comedy show that put the finishing touch on an event dedicated to entrepreneurship, innovation, and connection. The performance was made possible through the sponsorship of T-Mobile Puerto Rico.
With eight editions and an increasingly connected business community, BE Fest reaffirmed its purpose of serving as a meeting point for entrepreneurs, business owners, organizations, mentors, institutions, and allies committed to Puerto Rico's economic growth, bringing them all together at a single event.
For more information about Boricua Emprende Fest and its upcoming initiatives, visit befestpr.com
About the Fideicomiso para Ciencia, Tecnología e Investigación:
The Fideicomiso para Ciencia, Tecnología e Investigación de Puerto Rico, as described in Public Law 214-204, as amended, is a private, nonprofit organization created in 2004 to drive the Island's participation and job creation in the global knowledge economy by promoting investment in, and funding for, research and development in science and technology. It invests in, facilitates, and develops the capabilities that continuously advance Puerto Rico's economy and the well-being of its citizens, through research and development-based ventures, science and technology, public health, and innovation—with the goal of making Puerto Rico a globally recognized hub of innovation. The Fideicomiso para Ciencia, Tecnología e Investigación de Puerto Rico was also designated one of 31 Tech Hubs in 2023, to lead the PRBio Tech Hub, in partnership with a multisector consortium on the Island. For more information: www.prsciencetrust.org.
About Colmena66:
Colmena66 is a program of the Fideicomiso para Ciencia, Tecnología e Investigación de Puerto Rico and a member of the SourceLink community, a network of more than 80 business ecosystem builders across the U.S. Its mission is to facilitate entrepreneurship by connecting people with the right resource at the right time so they can build successful businesses in Puerto Rico. It is the only organization on the island that works with all types of businesses at any stage of development. As an integrator of the business ecosystem, Colmena66 analyzes gaps and works hand in hand with Puerto Rico's Business Support Network to address them. Colmena66's resource network is made up of more than 250 organizations that provide business support throughout Puerto Rico. These organizations represent the public sector, the nonprofit sector, and academia. For more information, visit www.colmena66.com.