Impulso Chileno Opens Its Call for Applications: Las Últimas Noticias Highlights the Story of Entrepreneur Sebastián Grau
He learned carpentry from his grandfather and, with a $5 million prize, built his small business. The program will distribute more than $1.2 billion to small business owners throughout Chile.
On Tuesday, September 1, the Luksic Foundation launched the eighth call for applications for Impulso Chileno, which will provide funding to 500 entrepreneurs from across the country. In this context, the newspaper Las Últimas Noticias highlighted the story of Sebastián Grau, the winner of the fourth edition.
Grau (36) studied literature professionally, but there was another craft that had been a part of his life since childhood. His grandfather, Guillermo Grass—an engineer who worked at Corfo and took up carpentry after retiring—was the one who taught him how to work with wood. At first, Grau treated it as a hobby. Then the first commissions began to come in, and, almost without realizing it, his tools began to take the place of books in his workday.
“I love literature, but professionally, it was a field with few prospects,” he says. With carpentry, the opposite was true: the more he learned, the more possibilities he discovered. “In Chile, there’s a lot of potential in the timber industry, and very little of it has been tapped in terms of native wood. You start to dream that it’s an interesting field, that you can do things,” he recalls.
That’s how Albura was born—a small business dedicated to designing and manufacturing custom furniture for homes, apartments, and businesses, in addition to offering products from its catalog. That made-to-order manufacturing, Grau explains, became a way to set the company apart from imported furniture and retail offerings.
Behind the brand lies a unique raw material. Albura works exclusively with lenga, wood sourced from forests managed according to sustainability standards and then processed in its Santiago workshop. The company offers everything from tables and desks to shelves, side tables, and complete custom projects. (maderasalbura.cl)
Turning his craft into a business presented another challenge. Grau knew how to make furniture, but he had to learn to read balance sheets, cash flow statements, and understand investment and growth. That’s when he discovered Impulso Chileno, a program run by the Luksic Foundation, which he applied to in search of resources to take his workshop to the next level.
He earned $5 million. He allocated approximately half of that to professional equipment to increase production volume and quality; another 25% went toward marketing and brand positioning; and the rest went toward building up a stock of supplies and raw materials to meet the increase in orders. More than the money, he says, the real change came from learning to plan for the future of the business and stop focusing solely on the day-to-day challenges.
Open call
That is precisely the experience the Luksic Foundation seeks to replicate with the eighth edition of Impulso Chileno, for which applications will be accepted from September 1 through 15. This time, more than $1.2 billion will be available to fund 500 entrepreneurs, who will be able to receive up to $5 million to invest in machinery, equipment, tools, digitalization, marketing, raw materials, merchandise, and other business needs.
“When we support an entrepreneur, we want their business to grow so that, in addition to generating more income, they can improve their quality of life, manage their time more effectively, and have more time for their family,” explains Cristián Schalper, Social Programs Manager at the Luksic Foundation.
Who is eligible to apply? Businesses must have been formally established before March 1, 2026, and report monthly sales ranging from $500,000 to approximately $16 million. Applicants must be at least 18 years old and owners or majority shareholders of the company; foreign nationals with permanent residency in Chile may also participate.
Competition will be fierce. In the previous call for applications, the Foundation received approximately 24,000 applications, and this year it expects to exceed 20,000 again. The selection process also takes regional representation into account. In its seven previous editions, Impulso Chileno has supported 1,420 entrepreneurs: 73% are from regions other than the Metropolitan Region, and 58% are women. With the 500 new recipients, the total will reach 1,920.
A new requirement is that applicants must register on La Brújula del Emprendedor, a free platform hosted on the Luksic Foundation’s website (fundacionluksic.cl), which conducts a business assessment and provides content and tools tailored to their needs. Schalper explains that the support that was previously directly linked to Impulso Chileno is now channeled through this platform, allowing entrepreneurs to access consulting services and training even if they do not receive funding.
Grau knows firsthand what it means to get that push. When he won, in addition to the prize money, he received six months of mentoring and training in business administration. For him, the main lesson was to change the time frame through which he viewed his small business. “You have to think about contingencies and always try to plan for the future of the business,” he says.
