Caxacori Studio, a sustainable fashion company, emerges as a beacon of hope in the Peruvian Amazon. Confronting the threat of deforestation, it has established an innovative collaboration with the Awajún communities, the second largest indigenous population in the region.
By focusing on the sustainable gathering of latex from shiringa trees, Caxacori contributes to preventing the indiscriminate felling of this tree species. An approach that not only favors the preservation of the Amazon Forest and its biodiversity, but also empowers 59 Awajún families, providing them with fair and sustainable income.
Beyond fashion, Caxacori Studio represents an exemplary model of an enterprise that addresses environmental sustainability and the well-being of indigenous communities, leaving a positive footprint in the heart of the Amazon.
Caxacori’s work has been recognized recently, by being selected as part of the winning enterprises of the Entrepreneur Fund program of Wiese Foundation. To learn more about Caxacori, we had a conversation with its CEO and founder, Jorge Cajacuri, where we discussed the learnings that Caxacori Studio has obtained with the program, and the plans they have for the future.
What are the learnings that the Entrepreneur Fund has provided Caxacori up to now since the call for applications began?
For us, being part of the Entrepreneur Fund has been very important and gratifying because we have learned about certain parameters of what an enterprise with an impact should be and, above all, I underscore the fact that we can now operate in a more organized manner.
The Entrepreneur Fund has allowed us to look inward into the enterprise, to make a kind of analysis of it, and see what shortcomings we need to correct, but also to recognize our values and strengths.
What are the plans for the S/150 thousand the Entrepreneur Fund grants them as a benefit?
The most important point of the whole Fund is focused on the commercial issue, because it is one of the points that we had to empower and bolster. However, there are also other aspects. For example, the issue of production. Moreover, we intend to create a more adequate workspace in which to manufacture our products or, also, to have meetings with potential customers, something that we do not currently have.
All this work would enable to upscale, which is what we want. Scaling up not only in commercial and production aspects, but also in social impact, to help more native communities and grow in terms of hectares of conservation.
If you had to summarize, in one sentence, the impact of the Entrepreneur Fund on Caxacori, what would you say?
Order and vision. Prior to the Fund, we dedicated ourselves only to some aspects of the enterprise that have been very important. But we have neglected others. So, with the various dynamics that we have had, with the various professionals that the Entrepreneur Fund has brought, we have realized that sometimes we have to prioritize things and balance them. This has been an important point for us because we have had to generate a plan, a series of actions and things that we are going to do, and that we are doing, in order to achieve our objectives.
Meet the other winners of the second call for applications by the Entrepreneur Fund
Are you interested in finding out who were the three additional winners of the second installment of the Entrepreneur Fund and how this program has contributed to strengthening its social impact in the regions it covers? Get detailed information here: https://www.fundacionwiese.org/blog/en/learn-a-little-more-about-the-four-winners-of-the-second-edition-of-the-entrepreneur-fund/
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