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Good practice Imported

ANII's Innovative Entrepreneurship Support Programme

Uruguay · Montevideo · See the Uruguay profile · See the Montevideo profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 39% 71/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Uruguay's ANII (est. 2006) funds seed-stage ventures via matching grants; a 2025 peer-reviewed study found 195% private co-investment leverage, and a 2013 evaluation found $1 of ANII funding returned 12x in revenue for firms surviving 3+ years.

195 %
Additional private investment leveraged by supported firms (2025 study)
12x
Revenue return per dollar of ANII funding (3-year survivors) (2013 evaluation)
UYU 160,000 (~US$5,100)
Idea-validation grant ceiling
UYU 800,000 (~US$25,000), up to 80% of project cost
Innovative product/service grant ceiling

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII)
Period
2006–present
Keywords
innovation financing, entrepreneurship support, seed grants

Context

ANII (Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación) is Uruguay's national innovation agency, a non-state public body created in 2006 and headquartered in Montevideo, which funds research, postgraduate scholarships and entrepreneurship support.

Objectives

Its entrepreneurship instruments aim to help validate early-stage business ideas and fund the development of innovative products or services for startups through public matching grants.

Activities

ANII offers grants of up to UYU 160,000 (about US$5,100) to validate early business ideas, and up to UYU 800,000 (about US$25,000) covering up to 80% of the cost of developing innovative products or services.

Results

A 2025 peer-reviewed study by Bukstein, Hernández and Usher found that firms receiving ANII entrepreneurship support leveraged an additional 195% in private investment on top of the public grant. A separate 2013 evaluation found that, among firms still operating three years after receiving support, every dollar ANII invested returned twelve dollars in revenue.

Conclusions

Neither cited study reports the overall three-year survival rate of supported firms, so the strong per-survivor returns cannot be generalised to all grant recipients; ANII is regularly referenced by regional bodies such as Uruguay XXI and the Inter-American Development Bank as part of Uruguay's positioning as an emerging Latin American startup hub.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Grants range from UYU 160,000 (~US$5,100) for idea validation up to UYU 800,000 (~US$25,000, up to 80% of project cost) for innovative products/services.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Operating continuously since 2006 (nearly 20 years as of 2026).
Staffing & skills
Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII), a non-state public body headquartered in Montevideo

Conditions for success

  • Matching-grant design requiring firms to co-invest, which appears to crowd in private capital rather than substitute for it
  • Sustained multi-decade public funding enabling a long-term track record
  • Independent, peer-reviewed evaluation of programme outcomes

Common failure modes

  • Neither cited study reports the overall three-year survival rate of supported firms, so the strong per-survivor returns cannot be generalised to all grant recipients

Where it fits

Governance type
national public agency (non-state public body)
Scale
national
Income level
upper-middle-income (Uruguay)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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