: In light of the new opportunities offered by the global context, subnational governments strive for increased internationalization through policies that impact the competitiveness of sectors and companies in their region or city. For this purpose, they develop initiatives, either dispersed or articulated around a strategy, and create specialized agencies for their implementation. In this paper, we document and analyze the creation and initial steps of Córdoba Acelera, the agency created by the municipality of the city of Córdoba to implement its productive internationalization strategy. We place special focus on evaluating its institutional design, while also describing and analyzing its activities in the first year of its effective operation. Additionally, we present a comparative analysis with other subnational agencies in Colombia and Spain. We find that the institutional design of Córdoba Acelera is innovative for a municipal government, while also being suitable to the competitive strengths and internationalization potential of the city. Its activities are also complementary to the work of other public agencies in the city and the province of Córdoba. In its first year, Córdoba Acelera has shown notable effectiveness and leadership, although we also highlight some risks that could undermine the potential impact of the agency in the future.