Women’s Entrepreneurship Day is held every year on November 19. This initiative, which is promoted by the United Nations, is celebrated in over 100 countries in an effort to highlight the role that women play in the economy.
Imagen de Chile selected four women entrepreneurs who are innovating from our country for the world.
Loretxu García (https://www.instagram.com/infiniski/)
Loretxu García, CEO and founder of the construction firm Infiniski, also recently created the startup Matrix Habitat. Its focus is a new and revolutionary building system based on construction panels filled with an aqueous compound. “House of Water Matrix Panel” is a housing solution that increases buildings’ thermal efficiency, thus reducing industry’s impact on the environment. García’s Chilean company patented the invention internationally, and she is currently based in Europe so that she can expand the project internationally.
Sara Nazal (https://www.instagram.com/salutadigital/)
Sara Nazal, a civil engineer specializing in medical management and finance, is the co-founder and financial director of Saluta, a digital mental health startup that combines telemedicine and innovation. The entity’s goal is to provide access to affordable mental healthcare to as many people as possible. The firm was launched in Chile in 2020 and expanded to Colombia in 2021. Today it has plans to move into Mexico, and the team is working to expand its market to more Spanish-speaking countries.
Patricia Palma (https://www.instagram.com/pym_foods/)
In October 2019, Patricia Palma and her brother Manuel Palma launched P&M Foods, a firm focused on caring for people’s health, changing the way we eat and improving quality of life now and in the future. Motivated by the idea of sustainable nutrition, they chose a series of plant-based ingredients like legumes and functional vegetable ingredients and integrated them into food matrices. This allows them to develop food products that meet nutritional requirements in a complete and balanced way. P&M Foods has placed 13 products on the market (12 of which have vegan certification) and have expanded their operations to the United States and Canada.
Barbara Silva (https://www.instagram.com/herglobalimpact/)
With a noteworthy international career developed in Mexico, Denmark and the United States, Barbara Silva has been a pioneer because of her studies and the steps that she has taken as a professional over the course of her career. She was the first Chilean woman to attend Singularity University in the Silicon Valley and has been recognized internationally as an Innovative Woman of the Asia Pacific and one of El Mercurio’s 100 Women Leaders because of her world view and capacity to develop and mobilize high-impact innovation initiatives beyond Latin America. In late 2017, she founded the “Her Global Impact” innovation academy, the first Spanish-language institution of its kind focused on women. Her strategic partners include Singularity University, Goldman Sachs and Amazon, and over 1,200 professional women have benefited from her program to date.
