Over One Thousand Entrepreneurs Knock on Chile’s Door

By Narayan Ammachchi

Organizers of the Start-up Chile say they have received more than 1500 applications from entrepreneurs in 68 countries and will soon select the top 100 best projects for funding.

Start-up Chile is currently in its seventh phase of funding new entrepreneurs and inviting them to Santiago to participate in what has become a symbol of Chile’s embrace of innovation and new ideas. Under the program, the Chilean government will give each entrepreneur US$40,000 in seed funding and a work visa.

Most of the budding entrepreneurs seeking funding are from Chile (37%), the United States (12%), Argentina (8%), Brazil (5%) and India (5%). And the projects that the entrepreneurs are offering to work on are related to social media (17%), e-Commerce (15%), IT and enterprise software (15%) and education (11%).

“The Chilean entrepreneurial ecosystem keeps getting stronger. People from all over the world want to join the entrepreneurial revolution that is taking place in Chile,” said Horacio Melo, Start-Up Chile´s executive director.

Start-Up Chile is designed to support early-phase, high-potential entrepreneurs to kick-start technology startups using Chile as a platform to go global. The end goal is to position Chile as the innovation and entrepreneurial hub of Latin America.

“We hope the success of the Start-Up Chile startups incentives others to come here and keep improving the Chilean entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Melo added.