What does it take for a scientific discovery to move beyond the lab and reach the market? Answering that question is key to accelerating innovations capable of transforming the lives of millions of people, from new therapies and foods to technologies for the energy transition and more resilient agriculture.

This type of innovation, known as deep tech, is characterized by long development cycles, high technological uncertainty, and significant capital requirements before generating revenue. These are high-risk investments but have enormous potential for economic and social impact when they succeed in validating their hypotheses and scaling up.

In sectors such as biotechnology, food, and health, many of these solutions originate in research laboratories. The challenge lies in turning a patent, a scientific publication, or a technological discovery into a company capable of competing in global markets. To achieve this, generating knowledge is not enough: innovation ecosystems that connect science, financing, talent, infrastructure, and demand are needed.

To better understand the opportunities and challenges of this emerging sector, IDB Lab conducted a diagnostic of Chile’s deep tech ecosystem.  Although still in its early stages, the ecosystem shows encouraging signs of growth and significant potential to drive innovation and productive transformation. Below, we share the key findings.

Analysis of Chile: Capabilities and Gaps for Scaling Up

According to the study, Chile has strengthened its scientific capabilities and increased investment in research and development. A new generation of entrepreneurs are building companies at the frontier of knowledge. However, significant challenges remain in transforming knowledge into sustainable scaleups¹ that eventually become global leaders. The study identifies bottlenecks that slow the scaling of deep innovation and hinder its passage through the so-called “valley of death”, the stage between the validation of a technology and its arrival on the market.  Amongst the main challenges are: 

•    A disconnect between science and business: Although Chile has more than 18,300 PhDs, 62% work at universities and only 7% are involved in the business sector. This imbalance restricts the direct transfer of knowledge to the productive sector.
•    A funding gap for scaling: Only 10% of the venture capital available nationally is directed toward deep tech sectors. This creates a shortage of specialized funding to support the intermediate stages of technological maturity (Technology Readiness Levels — TRL — 5 to 7), forcing Chilean startups to rely excessively on public funds or to relocate abroad.
•    Misaligned academic incentives: Current university evaluation and accreditation systems (primarily those of the National Accreditation Commission — CNA²) continue to prioritize the publication of theoretical research over patenting, industry collaboration, or the development of academic spin-offs.
•    Insufficient technical infrastructure: Although the country has more than 800 laboratories and 30 technology centers, capacity is limited for the advanced phases of pilot testing, technical demonstration, and validation under industrial standards (GMP/GLP).
•    Limited private sector participation: Corporate actors still play a limited role as early validators, early adopters, or strategic investors. Progress is needed in venture client models, deepening corporate investment, and fostering a culture of innovation and early validation in real-world demand environments.

IDB Lab’s Five Strategic Pillars for the Chilean Ecosystem

Given this landscape, the study proposes a roadmap to catalyze early-stage investment:

1.    Create blended financing instruments and venture client models. Combine non-dilutive public funds with private capital, encourage corporate co-investment, and promote schemes in which large companies act as early adopters and technology validators to overcome the technical validation gap.
2.    Invest in piloting infrastructure and the coordination of regional hubs. Strengthen laboratories and collaborative platforms that accelerate the transition from lab prototypes to industrial validation, bolstering regional technology centers and emerging ecosystems in various parts of the country.
3.    Offer training in technology management and early-stage customer validation. More than 70% of Chilean deep-tech startups are led by scientists and engineers with a solid technical background but limited business experience. Mentoring programs and early-stage customer validation initiatives can accelerate the development of teams with both scientific and entrepreneurial skills.
4.    Make regulatory frameworks more flexible and offer sector-specific sandboxes. Promote a national deep tech strategy, along with regulatory frameworks and certification pathways that facilitate technology transfer and reduce time to market.
5.    Create soft-landing opportunities and connections with the scientific diaspora. Given the relatively limited size of the Chilean market for highly specialized technologies, strengthening partnerships with international accelerators and networks of scientists abroad can facilitate global expansion without requiring companies to completely relocate their operations.

From Cutting-Edge Science to Business Impact

The study documents success stories that demonstrate that when science, funding, and the market have been effectively aligned, Chilean deeptech companies have managed to scale globally. Sharing these stories is key to inspiring new generations of science- and technology-based entrepreneurs.

NotCo has applied generative artificial intelligence to the development of new foods, accelerating molecular formulation processes that previously took years. Zippedi has developed autonomous robots with computer vision that create digital twins of store shelves to optimize inventory management in retail. Pewman Innovation has validated a bioformulation based on extremophile microorganisms and nanotechnology that strengthens crops’ resilience to frost and drought.
 
These examples demonstrate that Chile possesses the scientific and entrepreneurial talent to generate innovation with global reach. The next step is to create the conditions for stories like these to cease being exceptions and instead become a regular feature of the ecosystem's functioning. Achieving this will require coordinated action among governments, universities, companies, investors, and research centers. Strengthening these connections will accelerate knowledge transfer, foster new science-based startups, and develop solutions that make a difference for Chile, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Read the full study and discover how the ecosystems driving the next generation of science-based startups in Latin America and the Caribbean are growing stronger.

¹ Scaleup: a company that has already validated its business model and is in a phase of rapid growth, with the capacity to expand into new markets.
² CNA: the agency responsible for higher education accreditation processes in Chile.