La Segunda spoke with Francisco Guzmán, president of the ACVC, about the current context of the sector.
The specific consideration of maintaining the tax exemption for venture capital funds in the tax reform is good news for the ecosystem and is the result of the work that ACVC has been doing for years in public policies, both in the tax reform and in regulatory changes in favor of the industry. Even so, there are several things that can be corrected, Francisco Guzmán, president of ACVC, told Diario La Segunda.
In a complex economic context, it is necessary to create the conditions for startups to continue growing and that is part of what is missing in Chile.
Part of the problem is the lack of coordination between the different government authorities related to investment in entrepreneurship. "On the one hand, there is the Ministry of Finance promoting the tax reform, which seeks to levy a 22% tax on capital gains for the sale of shares in the stock market, reducing the attractiveness of these investments, but Corfo, of the same government, promotes the ScaleX program with the Santiago Stock Exchange, which seeks to open Chilean startups to the stock market in Chile..... There is a lack of a centralized pro-investment policy in startups with a scientific-technological base", he said.
On the other hand, the conditions to grow the investment ecosystem are still not optimal. "Startups leave Chile (to Delaware) because they need to raise a volume of capital that they cannot raise here. If they need US$ 10 or US$ 20 million they have to look abroad, and the big investors require firms that are incorporated abroad," he said.
Full interview at https://bit.ly/3UgOil5