From Lastarria Garage to Global Player: How One Santiago Entrepreneur Built Latin America's Leading Climate Tech Unicorn

Five years ago, Catalina Morales was working from a converted garage on Calle Merced in Lastarria, developing software to help agricultural enterprises across the region track and reduce their carbon emissions. Today, her company ClimateTrace operates from a sprawling innovation hub in the Parque Arauco Tech precinct and commands a valuation that has made her one of Santiago's most influential entrepreneurs under 40.

The 38-year-old founder's ascent mirrors Santiago's broader transformation into a serious Latin American innovation powerhouse. Since 2020, venture capital investment in the city has tripled to approximately $2.1 billion annually, with climate-tech and sustainable agriculture attracting nearly 23 percent of that capital.

"The moment was right," Morales explained during a recent panel at the Fundación Chile innovation campus in Las Condes. "Chile had the regulatory framework and the agricultural sector's genuine need for solutions. Santiago gave us access to talent, capital, and networks that would have taken decades to build elsewhere."

ClimateTrace's breakthrough came in 2023 when it partnered with major Chilean wine producers to embed emissions-tracking into their supply chains—a model now replicated across coffee, berry, and forestry operations throughout Chile and Peru. The platform processes data from over 8,000 farms, generating insights that have helped clients reduce operational carbon by an average of 18 percent.

What distinguishes Morales's approach within Santiago's competitive startup scene is her deliberate focus on building local talent pipelines. ClimateTrace employs 240 people, with 160 based in Santiago. The company has established partnerships with Universidad de Chile and Pontificia Universidad Católica to create internship programs specifically targeting underrepresented groups in tech—a commitment that has become increasingly important as Santiago's innovation district matures beyond its early-stage, homogeneous founding days.

The entrepreneur credits her success partly to Santiago's geographic advantages and institutional support. Proximity to South America's major agricultural zones, combined with institutions like the Ministry of Science and Innovation, has accelerated product development cycles. Yet Morales remains candid about persistent challenges: "Access to later-stage funding still requires looking to Miami or São Paulo. Santiago is excellent for seed and Series A, but we're still building the infrastructure for sustained growth."

As ClimateTrace prepares for a Series C funding round this autumn, Morales's trajectory signals that Santiago's innovation district is maturing beyond hype. The city now produces founders solving genuinely complex problems at scale—a meaningful shift from five years ago, when most local startups targeted niche consumer markets.

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