US Investor Awards US$75,000 to Concepción Startups

U.S. Investor Allocates US$75,000 to University Startups in Concepción Chambify, Pairy, and PetFile each received an initial check for US$25,000 The final round of the 7th Gear Challenge brought together 10 tech startups from students at the University of Concepción, who presented their solutions to North American entrepreneur Chris Klaus. By: Sofía Maluenda It all started with a message on Facebook. As told by the dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Concepción, Pablo Catalan , students were called to a hall where a surprise awaited them: they would present their tech solutions to U.S. investor Chris Klaus, who would be awarding US$25,000 each to the top three projects, plus the possibility of opening operations in the U.S. Klaus — known for founding the tech firm Internet Security Systems (later acquired by IBM) — came to the University of Concepción to scout projects that could go global. “Two or three years ago this would have been unthinkable,” said Dean Catalán. The Pitches Each startup had four minutes to pitch and convince the jury, which included Chris Klaus, international investors, and university representatives. Ten teams made it to the finals, selected from 138 submissions. The winning startups were: Chambify – A platform that connects emerging artists with event producers and opportunities. Pair – An app for organizing relationship goals, anniversaries, and shared milestones. PetFile – An app that uses AI to manage and organize pet medical records and documents. “Each one presented strong and globally scalable solutions,” said Klaus. One of the winners, Fernando Díaz de Arcaya, CEO of Chambify, celebrated the international recognition: “We demonstrated that we can solve global problems from here.”