Science and technology-based companies (EBCT) are critical to developing scalable, high-impact solutions to humanity’s major challenges, such as climate change, the water crisis, and food security.
According to the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation’s 2021 Second Characterization Study of Science and Technology-Based Ventures and Companies in Chile, these companies face specific challenges such as the need for long-term financing, the complexity and length of their technology validation cycles, a shortage of specialized technical support, a lack of commercial and business skills, and the distance between their solutions and market demand.
With this reality in mind, and based on a diagnosis of the local ecosystem, Startup Campus was designed—a project driven by Corfo and Fundación Chile—which is the country’s first hub providing specialized support for science and technology-based entrepreneurship (EBCT), with dedicated infrastructure for developing technologies to address the major challenges associated with climate change.
This initiative seeks to bring together the full range of support available for these types of companies—for example, specialized acceleration or support programs—building capabilities in key areas such as fundraising, internationalization, and more; mentoring sessions with experts; access to public and private financing (grants, investment, and debt); direct industry connections through open innovation for piloting; and the infrastructure and equipment needed for technology validation. Across 3,850 m2, it will include co-working spaces, an auditorium, collaboration areas, offices, a life sciences laboratory, and a prototyping lab.
What is Startup Campus not? It’s not a building, it’s not a co-working space, it’s not a city, it’s not a chunk of concrete and bricks, and it’s not a real estate business.
These are some of the points we know many people want to understand, and we hope to gradually address them and share more details. We’re just getting started, and we want to spark conversations with the ecosystem to enrich and complement the project with external perspectives that help us develop it in the best possible way.
People have talked about stones and concrete, referring to the “building.” However, this project is not going to invest in that—but it will invest in bricks, stones, steel, cables, technology, and all the infrastructure needed to have laboratories where EBCTs can access and validate their technologies. There is a lack of understanding of these startups’ needs: they require complex, high-quality equipment and therefore high costs that, most of the time, they cannot finance.
There have also been references to “failed” projects of this kind; however, I believe it’s the entrepreneurs themselves who have taught us that the biggest mistakes can yield the most valuable lessons.
We don’t have absolute certainty about the recipe for success, but we believe that with will, effort, knowledge, work, and collaboration, we can build it. Building an ecosystem is based on collaboration, and today I invite you to do just that: contribute, support, and drive the major changes the country needs, because this ambitious project needs every one of you.
Francisca Contreras
Acting Executive Director, Startup Campus