Kaitek (alternatively Kaitek Labs) is a Chilean biotech company focused on the development of bacterial sensors for

environmental monitoring Environmental monitoring describes the processes and activities that need to take place to characterize and monitor the quality of the environment. Environmental monitoring is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, as well a ...

. It was founded in 2013 by Emilia Díaz. Current partners are: Emilia Díaz, Cristóbal Aller and Felipe Varea.

Origins

Even though Kaitek was founded in July 2013, the company's first project "

Red Tide A harmful algal bloom (HAB) (or excessive algae growth) is an algal bloom that causes negative impacts to other organisms by production of natural algae-produced toxins, mechanical damage to other organisms, or by other means. HABs are sometimes ...

Detection Kit" started its development in 2012, where it was chosen as one of the winners of a nationwide entrepreneurship competition. During the project's pre-development phase, Emilia was joined by Cristóbal Aller and Felipe Varea as partners of Kaitek. In December 2013, the company received a development grant from

Corfo The Production Development Corporation (CORFO, from es, Corporación de Fomento de la Producción de Chile) is a Chilean governmental organization that was founded in 1939 by President Pedro Aguirre Cerda to promote economic growth in Chile. ...

, the Chilean Economic Development Agency, to complete the research and development of their proposed project. The project has been awarded many prizes both in national and international contests, including BYU’s “IBMC” (USA, 2015), AAAS’s “GIST” (Morocco, 2014), Copec-UC’s “Aplica tu idea” (Chile, 2014), Emprende UC’s “Jump” (Chile, 2012) totaling over U$D 50K in prize money in three years.

References

{{reflist Biotechnology companies established in 2013 Technology companies of Chile