| Acción Emprendedora | |
| Type: | non-profit organization[1] |
| Founding Location: | Santiago de Chile |
| Location: | Santiago de Chile, Chile |
| Area Served: | Chile |
| Methods: | training and assisting owners of poor micro-enterprises |
Acción Emprendedora (AE) is a non-profit organization founded in 2002 in Chile. The organization claims to seek the eradication of poverty by training and assisting poor small business owners and helping microentrepreneurs grow their businesses through education and mediating loan negotiations. Based in Santiago de Chile, it is present in seven major cities throughout Chile.
In Chile, 98% of businesses are small businesses and micro-enterprises,[2] and 62% of national employment is linked to micro-enterprises, half of whose employees have not completed their basic education.[3]
AE uses a three-step development model:[4]
Since 2003, AE has trained over 3,000 micro-entrepreneurs, and in the Santiago Learning Center alone, trained 500 micro-entrepreneurs in 2010.[8] AE also mediates loans for its entrepreneurs through various banks including the Banco de Dessarrollo, Banco Santander, and the Women's World Banking FINAM. For its efforts, AE has received international recognition from the Inter-American Development Bank as one of the 40 best social projects in Latin America.[9]
AE has received awards in Chile and throughout Latin America.
To measure its effects, Acción Emprendedora has implemented a database system, innovative methodologies, rigorous monitoring. Thus, it is possible to accurately measure how many jobs are generated by the model implemented, the cost per additional job, and what sales growth the micro enterprises supported; increases in their income, the percentage completion, among others.
AE currently has 6 entrepreneurial centers in Chile located in Santiago, Valparaíso, Concepción, Antofagasta, San Pedro de Atacama, and Coronel.Additionally, AE has continued expansion into neighboring countries including Guatemala, where AE had to close due to political instability and Peru, where it is still active today. Future plans include opening a learning center in Durham, NC, because AE finished as a finalist in the Duke University Start-Up Challenge.[14] Other plans include sharing the AE model in Ecuador.