Two years ago my friend Diego introduced me to Francisco the head of one of Chile’s family offices. Francisco told us that he wanted to invest in startups and high growth small businesses not only because he thought Chile needed a fully private early stage startup fund to help entrepreneurs be successful, but also to potentially change how Chilean investors look at startups by showing them the way forward.
After working together for about six months, Francisco, Diego and I announced our first two investments, officially launching Magma Partners, a US$5M early stage investment fund powered 100% by capital from the three of us.
Our original plan was to invest in 4-6 companies per year, but we were inundated with qualified companies that needed capital, monitorship, connections and feedback from people who’d done it before. We received over 150 applications in the first few months and started to invest. Since then, we’ve continued to be extremely active, learning lessons and refining our approach, focusing on business to business companies that do operate in Latin America and Latin America based businesses whose primary market is the United States and Europe.
Here’s what we’ve done so far:
- 500+ applications reviewed
- 200+ meetings with entrepreneurs
- 20 companies funded
- US$1.1M invested
- US$50k average ticket
- 35 founders
- 56 jobs created
- 3 failed companies
- 100% private capital
- First portfolio company opening offices in the US, receiving US follow on funding
These 20 companies are much more than just 20 investments. Over the past year, we’ve created the Magma community, turning our ~3000 square foot office into something that feels like a family. Founders help each other every single day, sharing the lessons they’ve learned struggling to build their businesses and trying to make their startups successful.
I’m most proud of the quality of people who make up our community. We don’t have any rockstars, just hard working people struggling to grow their startups. It’s been fun to watch our entrepreneurs grow, not only on the business side, but also as people. And selfishly, each investment makes my job easier, as it adds another really smart team who can help the other founders already in the group.
We’re just hitting our stride two years in and I’m extremely excited about our portfolio and the quality of teams that are applying for funding. I’m extremely proud to be a part of the Magma community and can’t wait to see what Magma year three brings!
I’ve included a few graphs highlighting our overall portfolio and links to our active portfolio companies.
Note: The letters on each graph represent different companies. Company A on one graph isn’t the same company as A on another.
Links to some of our active portfolio companies:
Property Simple – Tools that help real estate agents sell more, faster. Operations in Chile and the US.
Deenty – Marketplace that helps dentists recruit new patients. Operations in Chile, Peru, Colombia.
Chiletrabajos – One of Chile’s largest jobs portals. Over 1,000,000 Chilean resumes in database.
Pricing Compass – Price analytics for brands and big retail. Clients in 7 Latin American countries.
Edoome – Software that helps teachers manage their classrooms. Software used by Chilean ministry of Education.
Ttanti – Handmade Chilean wood watches.
Keteka – Unique Latin American travel experiences sold to the US and European market.
Pagatuprofesional – Platform that helps lawyers, personal trainers and other professionals receive payment more quickly.
Restudio – SaaS safety platform for the mining industry. Clients and investors in Chile, Peru and Colombia.
Comparajobs – Glassdoor for Latin America.
Pousta – Spanish language online magazine for Latin America and US market.
Founderlist – Angelist for Latin America.
Sunloyalty – Customizable loyalty programs for medium and large companies.
Lynk – Data protection for large companies.
2 Comments