Valerio Adrián Anacleto

Profile

Building the Impossible Company from a Neighbourhood Nobody Exported From

The streets in Laferrere were dirt when Valerio Adrián Anacleto walked them to school. He was known there as Adrián - a kid sharp enough to see that computers were the future, stubborn enough to do something about it, and pragmatic enough to start earning money at ten years old to make it happen. His family was not wealthy. His path to a university degree was not obvious. What he had was velocity.

At seventeen, still in secondary school, Anacleto co-founded an Informatics Institute in Laferrere with a classmate. It collapsed within two months and took two years of savings with it. Most people would shelve the entrepreneur ambition at that point. Anacleto filed the lesson and moved on. He enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires to study Computer Science, took public transit across the city to reach campus, and found his first job in the systems sector before he had even graduated.

There was a teacher, too - María Elena Borocielo. She had started her university degree in Geology, had it interrupted by Argentina's dictatorship, and resumed at fifty. She guided Anacleto toward Exact Sciences. The detail matters because it explains something about how he thinks: the people who shaped him were the ones who refused to accept that circumstances were fixed.

In 2003, Anacleto and two partners launched Epidata. The pitch was simple and radical at the same time: a Latin American company focused entirely on software architecture and customized software solutions - not infrastructure, not support tickets, not generic body-shopping. At the time, no company in the region had staked out that ground. Epidata was first.

Being an entrepreneur is something you carry in your blood.

- Valerio Adrián Anacleto

By January 2010, Epidata had 80 people on staff, offices in Argentina, Chile, and Spain, and was growing at roughly 70 percent per year. Anacleto was thirty years old. He told a journalist that year that Epidata's long-term goal was simple: "an international profile, excellence, recognized for its innovative contribution." He was not being vague. He was announcing a trajectory.

Two decades later, Epidata has 900 professionals operating across ten Latin American countries plus the United States - with a base in San Francisco. Annual revenue sits at $30 million. The company carries a 4.9 out of 5 rating on Gartner in the application development vendor category. It is a Salesforce Cloud Reseller for Argentina and Uruguay, a Datadog Gold Partner, and runs practices in artificial intelligence, RPA, cloud migration, IoT, data analytics, legacy system modernization, and mobile development.

Anacleto did not build a consultancy that sells hours. He built an institution that sells ideas - and keeps them. The distinction is why Epidata's client relationships tend to run long, why the company's Gartner reviews emphasize "strategic partner" rather than "vendor," and why the firm keeps landing assignments that matter: home banking infrastructure for Argentina's Link network, the COVID-19 vaccination tracking system for the city of Buenos Aires, digital transformation programs for public sector entities across Latin America.

At a Glance

Born Laferrere, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

Nationality Argentine

Education Computer Science, Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)

Current Role CEO & Co-Founder, Epidata

Also First VP, CESSI (Argentine Software Industry Chamber)

Also Mentor, Manos Accelerator

Also Former Professor, UBA & UCA

Based San Francisco, CA & Buenos Aires, Argentina

4.9

Gartner Peer Insights

★★★★★

Application Development Vendor

Epidata Footprint

Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Peru Uruguay USA + Mexico + Ecuador + Paraguay

Industry Leadership

Running a Company and Shaping its Industry at the Same Time

Anacleto never treated Epidata as the whole of his ambition. Alongside building the company, he spent roughly nine years as a professor at UBA's Facultad de Ciencias Exactas and nine more as Associate Professor at Universidad Católica Argentina. Two institutions, concurrent, alongside a growing company. The classroom was not a side project - it was a conviction. He says the knowledge industry is "the most inclusive industry you can have." Teaching was the proof of that belief.

His other parallel track ran through CESSI, the Argentine Chamber of Software and Computer Services Companies. Anacleto was elected First Vice President, served a full term focused on digital transformation, and was then re-elected to a second consecutive term. At CESSI he also helped lead the Bridge IT initiative - a program designed to give Argentine tech entrepreneurs access to mentorship and growth capital. He was, simultaneously, a founder and someone who helped other founders get started.

His read on Argentina's tech talent market is specific and unsparing. He told Nearshore Americas that Argentina is approximately 35,000 engineers short of what the market actually needs - while producing only around 3,500 new engineers per year. The gap is structural. Epidata's model exists partly to navigate it: the company's staff augmentation practice gives international clients access to Argentine engineers at rates that are four to five times lower than equivalent US talent, while still paying competitive local wages, protected by Argentina's Software Promotion Law which reduces employment costs by roughly 30 percent.

The knowledge industry is the most inclusive industry you can have.

- Valerio Adrián Anacleto

We are 35,000 engineers below what the market needs - currently Argentina is producing about 3,500 new engineers every year.

- In an interview with Nearshore Americas

By the Numbers

Epidata in 2025

900+

Professionals

Across 10 countries and three continents. Started as a three-person team in Buenos Aires.

$30M

Annual Revenue

Steady growth from a bootstrapped 2003 founding. No external VC. Pure execution.

25%

YoY Growth (2024)

In a challenging macro environment for Latin American tech, Epidata kept accelerating.

$4.2M

Investment Plan 2025

Committed capital for expansion into Mexico, Ecuador, and Paraguay.

4.9

Gartner Rating / 5

Ranked among the highest-rated application development vendors in Latin America.

22

Years Building

Founded 2003. Still privately held. Still growing. Still led by the original founder.

Career Arc

From Laferrere to Latin America

Age 10 (~1989)

Began working at fairs in La Matanza to fund his education and support his family. The habit of earning his own way started early.

Age 17 (~1996)

Co-founded an Informatics Institute in Laferrere with a partner. It folded within two months, wiping out two years of savings. Filed the lesson, kept moving.

1997

Enrolled in Computer Science at Universidad de Buenos Aires, commuting by bus from Laferrere to University City - always the cheapest option.

~2000

First professional role in the systems sector, while still completing his degree. The combination of theory and practice became his working method.

2003

Co-founded Epidata with two partners. First company in Latin America to specialize in innovation outsourcing and software architecture. Hired the first employees.

2003-2012

Taught as Professor at UBA's Facultad de Ciencias Exactas for roughly nine years, concurrently with building Epidata.

2005-2014

Associate Professor at Universidad Católica Argentina. Two institutions. One founder.

2010

Epidata reaches 80 employees with offices in Argentina, Chile, and Spain. Annual growth rate hits ~70%.

~2014

Joins CESSI's Entrepreneurs Commission to lead Bridge IT, a mentorship and access program for Argentine tech startups.

~2020

Epidata team builds the Buenos Aires COVID-19 vaccination registration system. The kind of project that defines what a company actually believes.

~2021

Re-elected First Vice President of CESSI for a second consecutive term, focused on digital transformation across Argentina's software industry.

2024

Epidata posts 25% year-over-year growth. Reaches 900 employees. Announces $4.2M investment in Mexico, Ecuador, and Paraguay.

Achievements

What He Actually Built

First innovation outsourcing firm in Latin America - created the category, not just a company
Grew Epidata from 3 co-founders to 900 employees over 22 years without external venture capital
Achieved 4.9/5 on Gartner Peer Insights - top-rated application development vendor in the region
Became Salesforce Cloud Reseller for Argentina and Uruguay
Achieved Datadog Gold Partner status
Led design of home banking infrastructure for Argentina's Link network
Built Buenos Aires' COVID-19 vaccination tracking system during the pandemic
Elected First Vice President of CESSI twice consecutively
Taught at two Argentine universities for nearly a decade each while running a company
Mentors founders at Manos Accelerator in the United States
Led Epidata's presence at Mulesoft Connect, growing the company's Salesforce/Mulesoft practice

In His Own Words

What Anacleto Says

Being an entrepreneur is something you carry in your blood.

Without public universities, people like me would never become CEO of a company employing 600 people.

The knowledge industry is the most inclusive industry you can have.

We are 35,000 engineers below what the market needs. Argentina produces about 3,500 new engineers every year.

The first job is always difficult, but if you don't get it today, you will eventually achieve it.

I firmly believe in the technological potential to create more opportunities in the La Matanza district.

The Details

Things Worth Knowing

01

His name is Valerio. He goes by Adrián. The professional world knows him as Adrián Anacleto - his middle name became his identity, which is itself a kind of Argentine story.

02

He started working at age ten to fund his own education. By the time he had his first job in tech, earning money was already a habit he had been practicing for most of his life.

03

His first business failed in two months. He lost two years of savings. He calls it a lesson - and filed it as one rather than a reason to stop.

04

Epidata was founded the same year as LinkedIn. Both have grown considerably since. One of them went public. The other stayed private, profitable, and expanding.

05

He was a university professor at two different Argentine institutions simultaneously for years, while running what would become a 900-person company. The lectures did not stop when the company grew.

06

Epidata's Gartner rating of 4.9/5 puts it ahead of most Fortune 500 tech vendors in the application development category. This is not a ranking most people would expect from a Buenos Aires firm.

07

His team helped design the vaccination system for Buenos Aires during COVID-19. The city chose Epidata because trust had already been built - through years of quietly solving harder problems.

08

A high school teacher who resumed her own university degree at fifty - after Argentina's dictatorship had interrupted it - pointed him toward computer science. He still credits her.

I believe there is room for another large company in Latin America.

- Valerio Adrián Anacleto on Epidata's long-game ambition

Anacleto's stated ambition for Epidata has not changed since the early interviews: international profile, excellence, recognized for innovative contribution. What has changed is that those words now describe a company with 900 people, $30 million in annual revenue, and expansion into three new countries. The aspiration has become a business plan. The business plan is executing.

He also makes his personal mission explicit - demonstrating that Argentina's public education system produces world-class technology leaders, and that the La Matanza district he grew up in can generate exportable talent. Both of these beliefs are still running as live experiments, and the results so far favor the thesis.

ValerioAdriánAnacleto