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Start-Up Chile is a program of the Chilean Government to attract world-class early stage entrepreneurs to start their businesses in Chile. The program’s mission is to Convert Chile into the innovation and entrepreneurship hub of Latin America by attracting the world’s best and brightest entrepreneurs to bootstrap their startups in Chile.

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 2011 application processes with the goal to bring 300 startups to Chile during the year, with the end hope of having 1,000 bootstrappers participate in the program by the culmination of 2014. 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.

Yesterday we found out the Policy Owl, one of the startups present for the VentureConnect autumn edition, was selected to be part of the Start-Up Chile experience. You can see their presentation from our meeting here:

“We applied because different from other incubators, Start-up Chile provides US$40,000 of equity-free seed capital, mentorship and connections with investors from all over the world. Plus, we can stay for 6 months in Santiago and South America, where Romanians do not need a tourist visa” , mentioned George Urdea (CEO and Founder of Policy Owl).

According to George, the benefits the incubator brings are numerous, from a financial runway which should be a considerable amount for the following 6 months, to working in a very exotic and lucrative environment for start-ups to develop their products.

We wish them the best of luck and looking forward to hearing from them after 6 months!