Arnon Kohavi, an Israeli venture capitlist, tried to start a venture fund in Chile according to this story in TNW. After six months he pulled out. His reasons, as reported in TNW, are below:
"I took off because it will take longer for Chile to reach the tipping point. Good will from the government and a few people isn’t enough to re-create what places like Silicon Valley, Israel and Finland have.
The heart of the problem is Chile’s dramatic generation gap, between young entrepreneurs and the old generation. The Chilean society is less dynamic than Asia or the US; a handful of monopolistic families control the country, and won’t move.
Worse, these families don’t care about anything (the young, the poor…) besides their money. They don’t have to: the country’s natural resources (copper, etc.) are a disadvantage here, because it means the rich don’t need to work hard. The Asian model is better, because it focuses on exporting manufactured goods.
Chilean family offices may still give money to Endeavor, but for them it’s not about entrepreneurship – it’s just a way to brush their ego, and they only do it because it is all conducted in Spanish.
I know people were disappointed when I left, and the Chilean government would have supported my fund, but I also wanted a commitment from the elite, and it didn’t happen. Yet, I’d be happy to come back and do business when the country is ready."
I suspect the same result would have happened in ten other countries in LATAM. Organized and supported entrepreneurship struggles in most of LATAM with the exception of Brazil. I am working with a group to organize a high tech entrepreneurship center in Colombia that is supported by the private sector, municipal and state government and local universities. With such widespread support maybe we will do better.
