Winner of the Enovus Emprende Award: Entrepreneur created beauty products based on calafate
From Magallanes and with products based on calafate, it is the winner of the first version of the award that stimulates the creation of businesses in the professional technical world.
In an event attended by representatives of companies, academic institutions, guilds and organizations related to the promotion of entrepreneurship, the Enovus Emprende Award was awarded, an initiative that seeks to promote the emergence of new businesses driven by students or graduates of technical-professional education in our country.
The winner of the day was Ana Patricia Arcila, from the Magallanes region, graduated from the CFT Santo Tomás, who presented an enterprise based on the artisanal production of beauty products based on calafate.
Thanks to the Enovus Emprende Award, he obtained a contribution of five million pesos and six months of mentoring provided by ChileConverge. In second place Carlos Merino from the Metropolitan region with a last-mile company and third place Hugo Muñoz from the Coquimbo region with smart greenhouses.
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Arcila said that, “this award will help me to take a tremendous step. This means scaling, it means putting my cream in pharmacies, in boutiques, in warehouses. I find it wonderful that it’s an award only for technicians. I’m 61 years old, I’ve had a track record of looking for awards and I’ve never seen this before. I value it and hopefully we will have a way to continue to maintain it, because there are many coaches and there are many people who are sometimes afraid to face an award that is very demanding and this allows us to continue advancing”.
The president of the jury and also director of ChileConverge and the Enovus Group, Carolina Pavez, highlighted the high level of the projects they had to evaluate during the day and, above all, the contribution of their colleagues in the evaluation body.
“Personally, I found it very gratifying to be part of a jury like this, of a high level, with great experience, passionate and committed to the development of a more prosperous and innovative Chile. Together we had the mission of selecting the winners and witnessing the momentum we are giving to promote professional technical entrepreneurial talent who are also part of a large workforce in our country,” Said.
For his part, the president of ChileConverge and Grupo Enovus, Horacio Pavez, pointed out that “we believe that working and strengthening entrepreneurship is fundamental for the development of the country and for a whole group of people who have the capacity, who have the interest, the vocation to undertake and carry out their business models. We are very happy with this award and very grateful to the jury and all those who collaborated and participated.”
In the same vein, the rector of the Iplacex Professional Institute, Roberto Barriga, delved into the importance of creating a stimulus that promotes entrepreneurship in the professional technical world. “For us, it is essential to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the professional technical segment. That is why, on this occasion, Iplacex has joined ChileConverge, to call on all students and graduates in the professional technical segment, so that they are encouraged to present their projects and, in this way, facilitate entrepreneurship”.
The executive director of ChileConverge, MarĂa Soledad Correa, also referred to this award, assuring that “we know what it costs to undertake and that many projects fall by the wayside because they do not have the resources, knowledge or adequate guidance. With this award we wanted to give the push so that hopefully all the ideas that were presented can reach the next level.”
In the two months that the call lasted, the Enovus Emprende Award received more than 1,500 applications, from the different regions of the country. Before the grand final, a pre-selection of 20 entrepreneurs from eight educational centers with offices in nine regions of Chile was made. Given the wide interest aroused by this initiative, its organizers are considering launching a second version this year.