Foreign innovation drives startup economies. In the US alone, 51% of billion-dollar startups were founded by immigrants.

Cities across the world have taken notice: encouraging the free movement of information and talent is crucial to tech sector success. Santiago, Chile, is forging ahead with a government-backed plan to attract top talent.

As reported in Brookings, part of Santiago’s success as Latin America’s tech hub is due to a program called Start Up Chile. The government-backed incubator/accelerator offers $40K of seed capital to entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world, as long as they stay in Chile for at least six months.

Since the program’s launch in 2011, $40 million USD has been invested in 1,309 startups. Out of these startups, 76% are run by foreign entrepreneurs, with 32% of the startups funded by Start Up Chile remaining in the country at the program’s completion. This influx of talent has given Santiago’s ecosystem an enormous boost, and has prompted the nickname “Chilecon Valley.”