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The ChileGlobal Ventures’ accelerator obtained a very good result despite having a riskier investment thesis than other institutions in the market, as it invests in startups that are not always generating sales. The report made by Corfo points out that one of its greatest advantages is the access to a wide network of investors, mentors, suppliers and open innovation programs accessed by the startups in its portfolio.
According to a report made by Corfo on the accelerators that are active in the country, “Incubator Evaluation Report 2018,” (Informe de Evaluación de Incubadoras 2018) ChileGlobal Ventures is positioned as one of the three best in the country. The report, which evaluated the 16 existing accelerators and incubators in Chile, established the ranking based on the effectiveness of the acceleration programs offered by these institutions, measured by their internal processes and the results of their accelerated startups which had completed this process in 2016 and 2017.
The managing director of ChileGlobal Ventures, Jamie Riggs, explains that “this is the result of a job that we have been doing for more than six years, since we started the accelerator. Our great differentiating attribute in the market is that we take more risks than other institutions, since we finance startups that are not necessarily generating sales, which makes these figures even more valuable for us. Moreover, 72% of our portfolio startups started our acceleration program without having had any sales. This is part of our investment thesis and our mission as the venture capital area of Fundación Chile, an institution that aims to bring in innovation in the productive sectors of the country, even when the risk is greater.”
He adds that, especially, they focus on the best entrepreneurs in the ecosystem who offer innovative solutions that are related to the productive sectors where Chile has competitive advantages, with both a local impact and global reach (such as mining, food and agtech, energy, water and smart cities).
The winning formula
The ChileGlobal Ventures’ accelerator has 37 early-stage startups in its active portfolio, which have generated historical sales of over 24 billion Chilean pesos and raised capital for a total of 7 billion Chilean pesos.
Although these are the ones that are currently in the process of acceleration, there are more than 75 startups that have gone through the ChileGlobal Ventures program, of which there are several exit cases, where Aventones stands out. In 2015, this startup was bought by the French multinational BlaBlaCar, becoming the first exit fully incubated by ChileGlobal Ventures through an SSAF fund from Corfo.
World-class Startups
One of the most outstanding success stories of the portfolio during 2018 is U-Planner, highlighted by Wayra as the Chilean startup that managed to carry out the largest capital raising in Chile, for a total of USD5 million. This startup, which offers a tool for higher education institutions to manage their resources efficiently, entered the ChileGlobal Ventures portfolio in November 2013. Following the ChileGlobal Ventures acceleration program, they managed to increase their sales by 3,800%.
Another case of recent success of the ChileGlobal Ventures program is Snuuper, which raised USD655,000 last year, opening new international markets such as Mexico. This startup uses geolocation and a collaborative working model, crowdsourcing, to offer information gathering services on the ground quickly, reliably and on a large scale for brands. Snuuper is another startup that started the ChileGlobal Ventures acceleration program in November 2013, although unlike U-Planner, at that time it had no sales achieved.
