Chile is a benchmark country in terms of technological startups and most of the time it’s described as the center of the activity in the region.

With Start Up Chile playing the leading role, entrepreneurs from every corner of Earth find in this Latin American hub a platform to launch their projects, with the infrastructure, investment and resources they need to do it.

However, the enterprising activity of Chilean companies is very intense, with successful projects that go beyond the country’s borders and gain ground in the region. These are five startups that have conquered Latin America:

CUMPLO

The creator of Start Up Chile, Nicolas Shea, met in 2011 one of the founders of Prosper – a company of resounding success, labeled the “eBay” of loans between parties in the US – and that was when he realized what his new company would be.

Back in Chile in 2012, Mr. Shea devoted his efforts to build Cumplo, a network that applies the premise of “people-to-people” loans and puts aside the financial intermediaries that characterized the industry.

The company, which mainly aims at funding PYMES and initially received seed capital provided by Corfo after validating the model, already counts on some 1,700 active investors, and transactions of nearly USD 45 M have been carried out by means of the platform.

2014 found them strengthening their teams, with some 80 new investors and 15 – 20 new companies on a monthly basis. The plans for 2015 include the consolidation of the model in Chile so it can be taken to Colombia and Peru.

MEDIASTREAM 

Since 2007 the company headed by Luis Ahumada has been targeting a shifting niche: the consumption of contents. Within the niche, it was a pioneer in the region as it provided streaming services for brands, events, concerts, etc.

The company offers generators of any kind of audiovisual content a fast and robust platform with quality definition for their transmissions, so they are focused on a common problem in terms of online broadcasting.

The success was overwhelming. In mid-2014 it received an investment of USD 1.75 M to support the growth that has been constant over the past years and has reached peaks of 50 percent in the markets where it stands, Colombia and Brazil, besides Chile.

All in all, its markets broadcast nearly 250 thousand hours of live streaming; they have over 60 million users worldwide and promote contents produced by some 70 brands from multiple sectors.

COMPARAONLINE

Sebatian Valin never thought that, when he was asked to analyze the online car insurance market, he would be knocking at the doors of a great business idea.

Based on the results, he decided to create an online car insurance platform that achieved positive figures and became a comparing tool for all kinds of financial products throughout the region, as he detected that it was an unsolved need and it could help the decision-making process that requires all possible pieces of information.

“We want to be the MercadoLibre of Chile” Valin points out and the company is working to reach this goal within the next four or five years.

Comparaonline is presently strengthening its position in Chile, Brazil and Colombia.

BETAZETA

People say that Leo Prieto is an expert in terms of Internet. A pioneer and specialist in the principles of the web, Leo Prieto created ImageMaker Company when he was only 16 years old.

In 2005, Mr. Prieto launched FayerWayer, one of the most prestigious technology blogs in Latin America. Saborizante and Zimio came up later, which became Betazeta Networks, described as the largest network of independent content in Latin America.

Betazeta has 10 communities that attract some 10 million users on a monthly basis from the whole Spanish-speaking world.