The American Jonathan Calmus has shown a keen interest for innovation and technological developments since an early age. After several business experiences, he arrived to Colombia to build Ciudad de Eden (Engineering, Design & Entrepreneurship in Nature), in a rural area close to Bogota.

“It is a 10 hectare area where we want to summon people from all over the world to develop solutions in specific topics”, explains Calmus.

Eden aims at develop products and services based on blockchain, an abstract concept that seeks massive, secure and open information spreading.

One of the main goals of Ciudad de Eden and its companies is for ideas to translate into a new way of thinking about problem solving in different sectors.

Eden has developed three companies, following different research goals.

The first is Gravitas, which focuses on medical tools and equipment control in operating rooms, to prevent losses or robberies.

“It is a device that integrates blockchain and other technologies, such as artificial intelligence, which give an alert to the healthcare professional on the tools used during surgery, to prevent them from being left inside the patient, a phenomenon that takes lives and is a matter of concern for healthcare authorities”, said the businessman.

Gravitas is being tested in hospitals in the United States and Israel.

The second company is Cosmic IIoT, which develops solutions for the industrial sector by implementing the internet of things.

Finally, Neon Air produces drones for heavy loads, focused on search and rescue.

Calmus explains he chose Colombia as the headquarters for his strategy development for several reasons. The first is that there is talent with lack of opportunities in the country. To recruit experts, the company shall invite them to solve challenges in its platform. The solutions will be in an open code. In addition, people or researchers willing to provide solutions can be identified.

The company expects to recruit around 500 for its research and development team in Colombia. Ciudad de Eden will be a kind of city with guaranteed infrastructure and life quality. Constructions will begin in 2019, using resources of private investors for USD 5 million.

Calmus considers that the country is located in the center of the Americas, which makes it a perfect distribution point to access the rest of the developed world. Another plus was internet access throughout the country.