Our first pilot campaign equipped four small businesses in Talanga, Honduras with the production tools they needed to grow. Thanks to a community of generous donors we funded plasma cutting, laser engraving, industrial sewing and vacuum sealing equipment.
Fundraising (100% raised)
$7,000raisedGoal $7,000 USD
100%
Funded
Meet the Entrepreneurs
Tools and Machinery
Edwin Marcía
Industrias Marcia
Honduras 11 Employees
Edwin builds agricultural and brick-making machinery, self-taught through YouTube. His team cuts every metal piece by hand — a slow, manual process that forces customers to wait weeks. A plasma cutter is being set up in his workshop to automate cutting and free his team for higher-skill assembly work.
Machine
Plasma Cutter
Purchased · 22 Jan 2026
Impact
Scale productionIncrease quality
Removes the largest bottleneck and increases product quality.
Printing and crafts
Catherine Amador
Color Ink
Honduras 1 Employee
Larissa and Catherine craft personalized wood, acrylic, and cardboard products for weddings and corporate events. They previously subcontracted all engraving, eating into margins. With a new laser engraver they bring production in-house, handle large orders, and offer entirely new product lines.
Machine
Laser Engraver
Purchased · 22 Jan 2026
Impact
Scale productionLaunch new productExpand to new marketsReplace a supplier
Higher margins, larger orders, new product offerings.
Footwear
Felipe Canales
Zapateria canales
Honduras 5 Employees
Felipe began shoemaking as a teenager and now runs his workshop with six employees. His outdated machines struggle with sewing leather boots, taking 30 minutes per pair just for sewing. A new industrial sewing machine cuts that to just 5 minutes per pair.
Machine
Industrial sewing machine
Purchased · 01 Apr 2026
Impact
Scale productionIncrease quality
6x faster sewing, higher quality, easier work for the team.
Food processing
Elmer Velasquez
Lácteos y Embutidos Velasquez
Honduras 12 Employees
Antonio has spent over a decade building a cheese business with 13 employees and four retail shops. His current bagging method limits shelf life and selling to larger supermarket chains. A new vacuum sealing machine extends shelf life and unlocks distribution to supermarkets nationwide.
This first round of entrepreneurs was a dream and you made it happen. Thank you for everyone who donated and supported it. Also thank you to NGOs Vamos Honduras and Pathways to New Futures for helping raise the funds.
Updates
March 2026 Visit to Talanga
DVDavid Venegas
We got a chance to visit the entrepreneurs and also meet with the major of Talanga as he had heard of the Spark Economics initiative and was eager to learn more (see the red shirt man in the picture below). He agreed to share the project with more locals whenever we open up the applications for the next round of entrepreneurs:
We did a test run of Antonio's vacuum sealing machine to package his cheese production. He recently built this new space in his backyard to house the machine and create a workstation for his 2 employees working on packaging. This was a massive upgrade from before when were working in the garage of the house.
We also did a dry run with Larissa & Catherine's laser engraver machine. Catherine also showed us the software used to design the pieces to be cut and engraved by the machine:
Catherine did a phone holder product using wood fibreboard. The laser from the machine cut the pieces and engraved the text "Where's My Phone?" The goal with this type of product is to offer it as a company branded swag for employees and clients. You can also see other types of product in the background, like plastic made swag and fiberboard branded baskets.
We also filmed the workshops of Edwin, Larissa & Catherine and Antonio, checkout the video here:
On our way back to the Capital City, we stopped by the 5ta Café, a local brewer in the Talanga region, to recap on the day and also meet the owner, Luis Borjas, who is interested in requesting a machine for the next round to fill coffee bags with grains at scale!
Left to right: Valeria Contreras, Enrique Rodríguez, David Venegas, Allan Velázquez, Maria Galeas & Madelyn Velázquez
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I'm deeply thankful to everyone involved to make this happen, including people involved on the project execution and also the donors. Finally, the next phase will be to collect data from these businesses and to create an impact report in the next 12 months. I'm excited to see the impact the machines will have in these businesses!
