Complete Guide to Venture Capital in Latin America

Category : Latin America Startups and Investing
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venture capital latin america

According to LAVCA’s latest State of the Industry Report, Latin American startups received a total of USD$500M in all of 2016. In just the first 6 months of 2017, they received USD$477M.

It is clear that Latin America is experiencing a substantial uptick in venture capital activity. For one, Series C rounds in Latin America totaled USD$314M for the first half of 2017, compared to USD$208M raised in all of 2016.

Additionally, the investments in 99, Brazil’s largest rideshare service, by Didi, China’s largest ridesharing company, represented two of the top three largest investment rounds of all time in Latin America.

The report also uncovered that 93% of the funding that Latin American startups received this year in VC funding went to the IT sector. This is almost triple the amount that was invested in the fiscal year 2016 through the same number of deals.

vc in latin americaImage Source: LAVCA

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Argentina Venture Capital Overview

Category : Argentina
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Argentina is seemingly a paradox: How can one of the most economically unstable countries in Latin America produce so many great entrepreneurs and the only three public tech companies of the Internet age? On one hand, outcomes for startups have been way ahead of its neighbors, but, on the other hand, local businesses have suffered from the economic instability.

The recent passing of the Entrepreneurs Law by President Macri in April 2017 aims to empower Argentina to dominate the regional startup scene. The new law not only contributes seed funds to small businesses in Argentina, but it also makes it dramatically easier to start a business. As Macri opens up Argentina’s market to the global economy, we will likely see more and more startup success.

If you are seeking investment for a venture in Argentina, here are some of the major players in the venture capital ecosystem. For a more in depth look at Argentina’s ecosystem, see my post Doing Business in Argentina. (more…)

Ep 34 Cristobal Perdomo: Venture Capital in Latin America

Category : Argentina, Crossing Borders Podcast, Mexico
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I asked Cristobal Perdomo to join me on this episode of crossing borders to talk about venture capital in Latin America. Cristobal is one of the founders of Jaguar Ventures, a Latin American based VC firm.

After getting an MBA and consulting for a couple of large companies in Brazil, he realized that the VC world was largely ignoring the rest of LatAm, so he set about to expand funding opportunities for startups in Argentina and Mexico. He shares advice for managing a business in multiple countries, investing in startups across the region and tips for managing teams across borders.

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Ep 33 Advice for Foreign Entrepreneurs Doing Business In Latin America

Category : Crossing Borders Podcast, Latin America Startups and Investing
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When I first got to Chile in 2010, it took me five years to understand all the nuances of how business was conducted. There are several important cultural differences between LatAm and the US that foreign entrepreneurs should pay attention to if they want to be successful. There are also very important differences across Latin American countries that should also be accounted for. Here is a distilled list of what I’ve learned about doing business across borders. This podcast is based on a talk I gave to Start-Up Chile and the subsequent blog post that I wrote called Advice to Foreigners Running Startups in Latin America.

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