Indigenous Enterprises Foundation · Temuco, Chile
Our own life projects.
Creating the ecosystem of Indigenous businesses that sustains Indigenous peoples' own life projects.
AMCHAM delegation on the ground, with Indigenous communities and businesses
Chile does not lack an ecosystem:
the Indigenous one has no front door
CORFO funds incubators, accelerators, mentor networks and coworking spaces. An incubator or an accelerator can receive up to CLP 240 million in co-funding. Not one of those lines has an Indigenous quota or focus.
The question is not how to build an Indigenous incubator. It is why the ones that already exist, funded and running, do not serve the 17,221 initiatives the Census identified.
That is why the Census and the Seal are not the Foundation's products: they are the keys to the ecosystem Chile has already built.
Programs and amounts: CORFO's Potencia Program, call-for-proposal terms. Inventory of organizations: Directory of Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Support Organizations, CORFO, 2018.
The national census of the
Indigenous economy of Chile
The first national diagnosis of the Indigenous entrepreneurial ecosystem of Chile, now in its second edition.
97% of the ventures recorded by social development programmes operate informally.
It shows who social development reaches today, and where the gap to close is.
The same company,
three countries, three proportions
BHP publishes, country by country, how much it buys from suppliers and how much of that spend reaches Indigenous businesses. In Canada and in Chile it is the same company and the same parent company.
- Canada
- 12.9%US$323 M of US$2,500 M
- Chile
- 1.3%US$24 M of US$1,800 M
The difference is not in the peoples: it is in decades of registration, certification and financing already operating there.
BHP Annual Report 2025. The proportions are computed from the published figures, not transcribed.
THE GLOBAL NETWORK
We are not inventing the model
An ecosystem of Indigenous businesses has sixty parts. In other countries almost all of them are built and have run for decades. In Chile they are missing, and not one has to be invented.
Four of the sixty parts
- A bank of their ownCanada, 1996
- Already exists
- First Nations Bank of Canada is chartered in November 1996: an Indigenous-owned national bank, today over 80% Indigenous-owned and controlled. And Peace Hills Trust, of the Samson Cree Nation, has operated since 1980.
- Missing in Chile
- None exists.
- FEi drives
- An Indigenous Bank of the Americas. Canada had a financial institution of its own in 1980 and a chartered bank in 1996: sixteen years between one and the other.
- Public procurement targetAustralia, 2015
- Already exists
- The Indigenous Procurement Policy sets aside contracts and fixes targets: 3% of the number and 3% of the value in the 2025-26 year, rising to 4% in 2029-30. Canada requires a minimum of 5% of value. It is procurement policy, not law.
- Missing in Chile
- The Indigenous target is missing. The mechanism is not: ChileCompra's Women-Led Business Seal entered the procurement system through Directive No. 20 of 2015, and was created in 2016.
- FEi drives
- An Indigenous Seal inside ChileCompra. No legislation needed, and the precedent is Chilean.
- Business certificationAustralia, 2009
- Already exists
- Supply Nation certifies, and more than 870 corporate, government and not-for-profit buyers purchase against that register.
- Missing in Chile
- There is no certifier.
- FEi drives
- The Indigenous Business Seal, filed with INAPI: ownership, management and control. Paper alone is not enough.
- Dedicated financial institutionsCanada
- Already exists
- NACCA's 50-plus Indigenous financial institutions lend with annual losses that averaged 2.1% in the 2019-20 year, taking on more risk than commercial banks.
- Missing in Chile
- None.
- FEi drives
- The figure that answers “it is risky”, produced by those who already did it.
How the Foundation works on each part →
Chile is not the first country where this is raised: the standard was built by comparing, and it gives back.
Four platforms,
one cycle that returns
From the moment a business exists, even if no one has registered it, to the moment a responsible company buys from it, and back to the territory as a documented commitment.
Indigenous Census
With artificial intelligence and public sources, it identifies the universe of Indigenous economic ventures in Chile (17,221 in 2025) without waiting for them to sign up.
Indigenous Directory
The business enrols and consents to appear. It becomes Registered when the Foundation verifies its Indigenous leadership against Article 5 of the bylaws and its start of activities.
Indigenous Enterprise Seal
Documentary verification of Indigenous ownership, management and control: for companies, at least 50% of capital plus Indigenous legal representation or administration; for communities and associations under Law 19.253, no ownership-percentage requirement. Filed with INAPI.
Indigenous Procurement Program
The demand that pays: the program that will connect responsible companies with verified suppliers and measure spend in verified Indigenous local content. In design, with a mining pilot in preparation.
Verified Commitment
The Regulation promotes two good practices: not appropriating anyone's cultural heritage, and giving back to the territory in at least one of four dimensions - environmental, social-territorial, cultural-spiritual or economic - in proportion to each company's reality. Voluntary, documented and verifiable. In design.
The system is governed by the SEi Use and Control Regulation, filed with INAPI, and its Tiered Registration and Certification System.
Founded in 2020 · Chile
The ecosystem Indigenous
peoples deserve
The Foundation supports leaders and companies from the Indigenous peoples of Chile in their economic development with cultural relevance, across the four pillars highlighted by the 2025 Annual Report.
Since 2020 it produced the first census of the Indigenous economy of Chile and the Indigenous Directory. An Indigenous Bank of the Americas is the declared horizon for financing.
“To build bridges between Indigenous peoples and responsible companies in Chile and Latin America to contribute to Indigenous economic autonomy, promoting inclusion, sustainability and reconciliation.”
Born in Temuco,
working across all of Chile
Non-profit foundation headquartered in La Araucanía. We support entrepreneurs from Arica to Magallanes.
Headquarters
Av. Caupolicán N° 110, Temuco, La Araucanía
contacto@empresasindigenas.org
+56 9 4966 5343
Does your company operate on Indigenous territory?
Community relations are a material risk. Buying from verified Indigenous businesses of the territory is the most direct, auditable way to manage it, with reporting aligned to IFC PS7, ICMM and GRI 204.
Write to the FoundationIndigenous Directory
Explore the Indigenous businesses enrolled across Chile.
directorioindigena.com →