According to Chile's Office of Agrarian Studies and Policies, the country is number one in exports of fresh grapes, fresh blueberries, dried plums, fresh plums, and dehydrated apples. It's number 2 in fresh cherries and shelled nuts, and number 3 in shelled nuts, bulk wine, and frozen raspberries.

They have a growing population, but suffer from the scarcity of resources that, in many cases, affect the agri-food industry. Addressing this problem is essential for the country because Chilean agriculture is responsible for 11% of national employment and generates US $ 10.000 billion.

Since 2019 when Uber bought the Chilean company Cornershop, the entrepreneurial ecosystem in that country has not stopped growing. In this sense, technologies for the agricultural sector have not been an exception and have become great allies of producers who, by incorporating them, manage to get closer to the objective of meeting the increased demand for food while taking care of natural resources.

As a consequence of this situation, the vertical of FoodTech and AgTech in the entrepreneurial ecosystem has grown in Chile and is transforming a traditional industry. Mutual funds are well aware of this panorama and look closely at that country. It is curious that a certain parallel can be drawn between what happens in Argentina with the entrepreneurial ecosystem and what happens in Chile: investors choose these destinations because of a common strength: their excellent human capital.

A paradigmatic case of the growth of startups in Chile is Instacrops, which in 2021 closed a round for US $ 2,8 million, in a Series A led by Genesis Ventures, a Chilean fund whose main investor is the British group OxBridge Capital Partners.

InstaCrops installs sensors to measure soil, climate, irrigation system and plant parameters, as well as satellite and drone image captures, performing automated calculations with cloud software on precise data to maximize production. This tool provides recommendations to farmers through an application and allows optimizing the use of different resources in crops: such as water, energy, use of fertilizers, generating significant savings and better decisions.

The sustained growth of entrepreneurs on both sides of the mountain range - and in Latin America in general - is evaluated by the private fund manager Venturance. Pablo Fernández, fund manager of the company, maintains: “(Latin America) is a market that is growing, with new investors entering earlier and earlier. Latam is gaining importance in itself and no longer just as an appendage of USA + Canada ”.

Venturance is currently developing its next fund, in which they estimate that they will make an average investment ticket in each startup of one million dollars and will have a 100% biotech focus including five specific verticals; industrial processes, medical and therapeutic devices, ag and foodtech, e-health and the convergence between AI and genetics. This is a great opportunity for startups that are in full expansion since Venturance invests in the early stages, from seed to series A.

Fernández left a piece of advice for those entrepreneurs who are thinking of seeking financing with Venturance “Our investment process is not fast, because we try to understand the business vision of the entrepreneurial team, see what elements we share and how we can be functional. So the team is perhaps the most important factor. We usually ask two to three references from all founders, understand where they come from and their past achievements / failures / learnings, and understand how they relate and interact in the work and personal sphere. Along with that we look at the market, the robustness of the solution and the timing. This last factor is key because when investing in technology it is crucial to understand if the market is ready to welcome and adopt a new solution ”.