In a move to boost local startup growth, Start-Up Chile SCALE, the follow-on fund backed by the Chilean government made its first nine investments. The nine companies will receive 100.000 dollars each in equity-free funding. In exchange, the founders agree to keep their companies in Chile for at least a year and serve as mentors to three Chilean startups while they’re there! Sebastian Vidal, Director of Start-Up Chile stated: “In Latin America there’s a lack of experts. You can count on your fingers the success stories that we have. Therefore, the solution for now is recruiting external talent to jump-start the local tech ecosystem through the accelerator, and provide incentives for entrepreneurs to stay in Chile after the program ends”.