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Start-Up Chile — Government Accelerator Attracting Global Entrepreneurs to Santiago

Chile · Santiago · See the Chile profile

Since 2010, Chile's CORFO agency has offered equity-free seed capital and a work visa to attract foreign founders to Santiago; a peer-reviewed Review of Financial Studies study found entrepreneurship training raised performance, basic services alone did not.

5,000+
Applications per year (mid-2010s) for ~240 places
79% of 407
Share of first-cohort grantees from outside Chile
6 employees
Average employees per Chile-based grantee company
119000 USD
Average annual sales per Chile-based grantee company
2.9 jobs
Average jobs retained in Chile by foreign-based alumni after leaving

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
CORFO (Corporación de Fomento de la Producción)
Period
2010–present
Keywords
startup acceleration, talent attraction, entrepreneurship policy, seed funding

Context

Launched by CORFO, Chile's economic development agency, in 2010, Start-Up Chile offers early-stage ventures equity-free seed capital (originally ~US$40,000), co-working space and a temporary relocation visa, explicitly designed to import entrepreneurial talent and know-how; by the mid-2010s it drew over 5,000 applications a year for roughly 240 places, with 79% of the first cohorts' 407 grantees coming from outside Chile.

Results

A peer-reviewed regression-discontinuity study (Gonzalez-Uribe & Leatherbee, 2018) found that bundling basic accelerator services (funding plus co-working space) with structured entrepreneurship training significantly improved venture performance, while basic services alone showed no measurable effect. A decade-long retrospective found Chile-based grantees averaged 6 employees and US$119,000 in annual sales per company, with 65% reporting sales and 49% serving clients outside Chile.

Conclusions

Foreign-based alumni retained an average of only 2.9 jobs in Chile after leaving, and comparative data suggest survival rates under Chile's separate Seed Capital programme were more than twice as high — Start-Up Chile optimised for ecosystem-building and talent inflow rather than venture survival per se.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Equity-free seed capital originally ~US$40,000 per venture.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
CORFO programme administration, Co-working space operators

Conditions for success

  • Bundling funding with structured entrepreneurship training, not funding alone
  • Equity-free capital plus a relocation visa to lower the barrier for foreign founders

Common failure modes

  • Foreign-based alumni retain very few jobs in Chile after leaving
  • Venture survival rates lag Chile's separate Seed Capital programme

Data sources

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

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