Co-founder and CEO of QUIPU. Quipu are local digital marketplaces for low income people to exchange goods and services using local tokens. They use spending patterns data to create alternative credit scores and unlock access to equitable financial services. Her work with Quipu was featured in Forbes and was awarded by MIT Innovation competition, MIT DesignX, Sandbox, Google, Fast Forward Accelerator, among others.

Mercedes earned a Master in City Planning from MIT in 2019. During her time at MIT, she focused her research on the potential of technology to foster civic and economic collaboration in marginalized communities. She also collaborated with the Community Innovators Lab, U.Lab, MIT CREATE, and the SPURS Program. Before MIT, she coordinated the projects’ development of CIPPEC’s Cities Program and run community development projects in informal settlements with the NGO TECHO. She has five years of experience leading consultancy and research projects on sustainable governance and economic development in cities across Latin America.

Mercedes is representing QUIPU, a finalist in the 2019 Innovate for Good Challenge, as an organization applying new I.T. in the blockchain category.