Start-Up Chile, a startup accelerator program created by the Chilean Government, executed by Corfo via InnovaChile, that seeks to attract early stage, high-potential entrepreneurs to bootstrap their startups in Chile has selected 105 startups to join it’s 6th batch. The chosen startups are expected in Chile in January or February of 2013.
The selected startups represent different industries and most of the world’s prestigious educational institutions including Brown University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, MIT, Oxford University, among many others. The most frequently represented countries are: USA (24%), Chile (19%), Argentina (9%), and India (7%).
E-commerce is the most strongly identified industry (24% of the selected), which is then followed by Mobile & Wireless (10%), Media (10%), IT & Enterprise Software (10%) and Social Media & Social Networks (10%). Remaining categories include Education, Energy & Clean Tech, Finance, Natural Resources, Social Enterprise and Tourism, among others.
Horacio Melo, Start-Up Chile´s Executive Director, in a statement about the new batch said “By selecting these 105 startups we are achieving one of our biggest dreams: when these entrepreneurs arrive in Chile we will have had more than 1000 global entrepreneurs from more than 36 countries. They have contributed in the mission of transforming our country into the leading innovation hub of LatAm. What´s more important, an increasing number of Chileans are becoming entrepreneurs, and we can´t be happier about that. We hope many global entrepreneurs continue to Chile to make their businesses global.”
The program has attracted about 500 companies to its startup program since 2010. The program ends its first phase in 2014. By then, it will have provided grants to 1,000 companies for a total of $40 million.
In 2010, the program, at that point just a pilot, brought 22 startups from 14 countries to Chile, providing them with US$40,000 of equity-free seed capital, and a temporary 1-year visa to develop their projects for six months, along with access to the most potent social and capital networks in the country.
The first application process of 2011 brought 87 startups to Chile from over 30 countries, after having received 330 applications– and, during the second process conducted in July of 2011, 650+ startups applied, vying for 100 slots.
The program lasts 24 weeks.