Start-Up Chile's investment portfolio hit US$5.9bn in 2020

Start-Up Chile, the accelerator of the country’s development agency Corfo, saw the value of its portfolio increase 172% from US$2.17bn at the end of 2019 to US$5.88bn a year later.

The accelerator has supported 2,283 startups from 88 countries through its different programs, according to a release.

The accelerator has 48 startups valued at US$10mn or more, one at more than US$100mn and three unicorns – companies valued at more than US$1bn.

Corfo head Pablo Terrazas said in the press release that the success of 2020 was due to the growth of startups such as Betterfly, Notco, Meliuz and Cabify, which together represent 67% of the portfolio’s valuation.

According to a study, the companies in the Start-Up Chile portfolio generated accumulated sales of US$2.15bn last year. In addition, they managed to raise capital of US$2.05bn or approximately 21 times more than what Corfo invested, with 89% raised abroad and 11% in Chile.

The study also indicates that startups supported by Corfo have a survival rate of around 44%.

Recently, Start-Up Chile opened a new call for all its financing lines. The accelerator also works with telco WOM to leverage entrepreneurs with initiatives that use 5G networks.