1000 applications, 100 leaders, 25 projects, 1 winner. After 5 months of exhaustive work and constant training – with professionals from Fundación Chile and consultants from the international company Jump Associated- the program to 100% Committed with Chile chose the winning project. CasaKit was given to the first place among the 25 projects presented.
The proposal submitted by the team formed by Marcela Carrasco, psychologist; Miguel Carcacia, architect; Hector Jorquera, social entrepreneur; and Leonardo Lleuful, construction engineer; was the winner of the program that Fundación Chile sponsored in this the Year of Innovation, with the support of CORFO.
By addressing the overcrowding problem faced by about 500 thousand households in Chile, CasaKit provides these families a self-construction assisted kit, of quick and easy implementation, that is supplemented with a low-interest and long term financing system. For this purpose, they partnered with Kiva – the world’s largest collective lending platform- which opens an initial credit line of USD 200,000. Thanks to the initial support, they have managed prototype 10 houses in Temuco. In the future, they expect to close 480 homes in Constitution, with the support of Arauco.
«Overcrowding causes stress, anxiety, depression and is often associated with domestic violence and delinquency. We want to avoid these problems by helping families to have an optimal place where healthy children can develop and become a real contribution to society«, says Héctor Jorquera, a member of the winning team.
«We are very proud of having brought together one hundred people across Chile willing to improve the quality of life of our country’s people, where each one of them has tried to transform an idea into reality. We want to relieve new leaders and generate impact as experience that promotes and develops the best innovation practices. Everyone can be innovative», says Marcos Kulka, general manager/CEO at Fundación Chile.
The second place went to Inmobi-Hunter, a proposal that solves the problem that arises when people cannot continue with the process of buying a home. The team -integrated by Juan Moreno, management engineer; Samuel Vasquez, construction engineering student and Matthew Woodhams, multimedia communicator- proposes to grant the possibility that their booking be transferred to another person willing to buy the same property. Thanks to this agreement, the customer will be able to recover the amounts allocated to the promise of purchase. The company provides transparency to a real estate market share by contributing with the verification of the actual financial situation of the clients and the reasons that lead them not to fulfill their commitments.
Third place was granted to TrashCatch, technological platform that wants to increase the incentive of people to recycle household waste, by using games and RVM systems that solve the logistical problem of collection, transfer and storage of waste. The proposal seeks to increase the rate of plastic recycling from 16.6% to 29% in 5 years.
The total 25 projects were presented last week before 2 teams of jury, integrated by eminent personalities in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation. They selected the 7 teams that made it to the final. However, considering the skills and the high level demonstrated by everyone, 9 teams made it to the final. These 9 selected projects included initiatives in the fields of social inclusion, mobile application development, urban sustainability, job search and the strengthening children’s education.
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