Julio C Lavalle

Born and raised in Lima-Peru, I have a background in Economics and International Development and my previous experience is relevant to the fields of business & socio economic research and project evaluation.

I’m passionate about social innovation and I’m actively involved in the Brazilian innovation ecosystem . As a matter of fact, I lead the Social Innovation front at Caos Focado, focusing part of my time to share learnings from the field with young learners at the Social Innovation Course Community and at the IDIN Innovation Center & Maker Space we manage in the outskirts of the city, where I teach about user-centered innovation using local technologies and mentor social impact projects.

I’m also an IDIN International Development Design Summit alumnus, where I was part of (as a participant) in Brazil 2012 and have continued to be engaged by organizing hands-on summits and mentoring teams and projects in Zambia 2013, Tanzania 2014 and recently in Pakistan 2016.

Today, in my late 20’s, I have spent the last 3 years living in Sao Paulo-Brazil where I co-founded Poupa Certo, a mobile app that uses big data, behavioral change and gammification theory to encourage users at the BOP to be in charge of their personal finances and access formal and better financial services. Furthermore, I research about the effect of savings on propensity to consume in this particular segment. My team’s work is currently being supported by MIT’s Scale-ups program, where I am currently part of the 2015 Fellows Class.

I'm a bike, beach, ice-cream lover and an avid reader.