Ruta N

Offers Ruta N as Medellin's municipal innovation route for local startup pilots and university-linked project grants.

Ruta N is Medellín’s municipal innovation corporation, established in 2009 by Empresas Públicas de Medellín, UNE Telecomunicaciones, and the Municipality of Medellín. It operates as a mixed public and nonprofit innovation platform, with public funding routed primarily through Alcaldía de Medellín from earmarked EPM dividend revenue.

Its public grant route is the FutuMed family, which disburses more than COP 14,000 million across 2025 to 2027 to startups, universities, and research centers. The active instruments here are results-based financing for real-world experimentation, a university research alliance grant, and a city-challenge prize. Ruta N also runs acceleration and training programmes that do not carry cash awards.

The practical fit is local: grants are limited to Valle de Aburrá, so the strongest applicants are teams working on Medellín metro problems with a clear path to pilot, deployment, or urban impact. The organisation is strongest when a project can connect city priorities, applied research, and startup execution through a single programme channel.