Tag: startups chile

Greatest Hits Episode: Daniel Undurraga: The Story Behind the Cornershop Acquisition, Ep 164

Category : Crossing Borders Podcast
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You can now find the full show notes of the Crossing Borders podcast on LatamList.com’s new podcast section. I’ll still post the audio of the podcast on my blog and I’m planning to start writing more again on my blog, like I used to.

Subscribe to the LatamList Weekly newsletter to get updated on the week’s top tech news and stories from the region.

Thanks for listening to Crossing Borders all these years! If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to reach out here, or contact me on social media.

Outline of this episode:

  • [1:21] – Nathan introduces Daneil Undurraga
  • [2:02] – Inside the acquisition process
  • [5:07] – How has living in different places influenced your life?
  • [6:06] – What do you see in Chile now?
  • [9:14] – Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?
  • [12:00] – What was it like trying to raise money in 2007 in Chile?
  • [14:12] – The background on Needish
  • [21:02] – Why did you decide to go to San Francisco?
  • [24:58] – VCs in LatAm or US?
  • [26:22] – What was your experience with Chilean funds?
  • [28:00] – Advice for founders on raising money
  • [29:50] – How can copycat companies be successful in LatAm?
  • [31:00] – Why launch in two countries at once?
  • [32:40] – Stay in one country or target the region?
  • [34:15] – When did you know the company would succeed?
  • [36:00] – If you could make one change to the LatAm ecosystem, what would it be?
  • [38:10] – What’s next for you and Cornershop?
  • [39:15] – Daniels advice to his younger self

Show notes on Latamlist.com

Doing Business in Chile: What You Need to Know

Category : Chile
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Note: It might seem funny, but I’ve never written a standalone post about doing business in Chile. If you’re interested in going deeper, please check out the Chile category on the blog, as there’s 8 years of content about what it’s like, delving deep on banking, real estate, startups, investing and more.

Chile is a long, thin country at the tip of Latin America that is widely considered one of the best countries in the region to do business. Across several indicators in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report, Chile beats out the regional competition. In 2018, Chile ranked 55th in the world on the World Bank’s Doing Business report, coming in just after Mexico, which ranked 49th. However, in recent years, Chile’s business-friendly reputation has slid from 34th to 55th which has been subject to some controversy.

Still, Chile is undoubtedly one of the most influential economies in the region, despite its small size. Chile’s population reaches just 17 million people, but the country is extremely centralized. The capital, Santiago, is home to 7 million people, or one-third of the total population. By comparison, São Paulo, the biggest city in Brazil, has over 21 million inhabitants – more than the entire country of Chile.

Chile’s overall GDP was US$247B in 2016, 28% of which is made up of exports. Chile is the world’s largest exporter of copper, and it also exports lithium, fish, and wine. While Chile’s overall GDP appears small beside giants like Brazil (US$1.8T) and Mexico (US$1.1T), its population is more than ten times smaller. When measured per capita, Chile’s GDP is the second-highest in the region after Uruguay.

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Latin American Entrepreneurs: Don’t be Scared of the US Market

Category : Latin America Startups and Investing
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Note: A version of this post appeared as a column in Spanish in Chile’s El Mercurio with the title Emprendedores chilenos: Pierdan el miedo a EE.UU. Although this post focuses on Chilean entrepreneurs, it can also apply to other Latin American entrepreneurs. From what I’ve seen, Mexican entrepreneurs are the least scared of the US market, followed by Argentinians, Colombians, then Chileans, who generally think they don’t have much of a shot at competing in the US. This mindset is slowly changing and this article’s goal is to push it along faster.

A few weeks ago, COPEC, a Chilean convenience store and gasoline service station chain, acquired Delek, a US convenience store and gas station chain with 348 US locations for $535MM. COPEC has operations in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Panama, but this is their first foray into the US market. It’s an important step for Chile because it shows that both big companies and startups alike shouldn’t be scared of the US market. In fact, they should view the US market as a big opportunity to expand outside of their home markets.

For way too long, when Chilean companies large and small have wanted to expand out of Chile, they’d look at Peru, Colombia and maybe Mexico. But we’re recently seeing a big change, both by startups and by big companies like COPEC.
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Highlighting Latin American Startups

Category : Latin America Startups and Investing
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When I meet with US and European entrepreneurs and investors, they frequently want to know what startups are doing well in Latin America.

There are generally three types of startups that generally do well:

1. Latin America based startups solving problems for Latin American market

2. Startups that target the US/European market and have a Latin American back office

3. Brazilian startups that generally target the Brazilian market

Each niche has their own pros and cons, but at Magma, we invest in a subset of the first niche: B2B startups that are based in Latin America and serve Latin American companies and the second niche: startups that target the US/European market, but have their back office in Latin America.

I’ll leave Brazil’s burgeoning startup scene aside for now and focus on some of the most interesting startups I’m seeing in Spanish speaking Latin America. Post in the comments if there’s a startup you think I should include. (more…)