Highlighting Latin American Startups

Category : Latin America Startups and Investing
Posted on by

When I meet with US and European entrepreneurs and investors, they frequently want to know what startups are doing well in Latin America.

There are generally three types of startups that generally do well:

1. Latin America based startups solving problems for Latin American market

2. Startups that target the US/European market and have a Latin American back office

3. Brazilian startups that generally target the Brazilian market

Each niche has their own pros and cons, but at Magma, we invest in a subset of the first niche: B2B startups that are based in Latin America and serve Latin American companies and the second niche: startups that target the US/European market, but have their back office in Latin America.

I’ll leave Brazil’s burgeoning startup scene aside for now and focus on some of the most interesting startups I’m seeing in Spanish speaking Latin America. Post in the comments if there’s a startup you think I should include. (more…)

Chilean Venture Capital Overview

Category : Chile
Posted on by

Lots of entrepreneurs ask me about Chilean investors and venture capital firms. Here’s my list that I usually send them. Hopefully it’s helpful.

Private Investors

Magma Partners – We’re the only fully private investment fund in Chile. We invest early stage and like to be first investors into companies. We’ll do initial investments of $25-$75k and can follow on with up to $250,000 per company. We like two niches:  B2B businesses in Latin America and companies that have their back office in Latin America, but whose primary market is in the US or Europe. 26 investments in 2.5 years. $5m fund. Presence in Colombia, Mexico, USA.

Public-Private VCs

The Chilean government, via CORFO, offers venture capital funds incentives to invest in Chile. For every $1 funds invest, CORFO can match an additional $2 or $3 with low interest debt that they forgive if you fail, but you must repay if you’re successful. Here’s the full fund list across all industries. These are the more startup focused funds.

Nazca/Mountain – In 2015, Nazca was acquired by Mountain Partners, a successful German/Swiss VC and company builder. They generally invest $200k-$500k in companies that can scale regionally and potentially expand to other mountain offices in Europe, Asia and Africa. Nazca has offices in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Mountain has offices in multiple countries across Asia, Africa and Europe.

(more…)

Doing Business and Raising Money in Latin America: My SUP Academy Talk

Category : Latin America Startups and Investing
Posted on by

Last week I gave a talk at Startup Chile’s SUP Academy about doing business and raising money in Latin America. It was fun share what I’ve learned over the past five years in Chile with the next classes of startup chile entrepreneurs.

The audio quality is pretty bad, sorry about that. Hopefully it’s still listenable!

Here’s the show notes:

(more…)

Some Books, Blogs and Podcasts I’ve Enjoyed Lately

Category : Books
Posted on by

Here’s some stuff I’ve been reading, watching and listening to lately.

Postcasts

This being so, so what? – Jerry Colonna

Jerry is an ex-VC and now coaches CEOs. In this episode, Jerry talks with a startup CEO who has 4 months of money left in the bank and how to make sure they keep the company around. This episode has been really useful to multiple portfolio companies already. Check out episodes 9, 20, 25 and 45 as well.

Tony Robbins on the Tim Ferriss Show

Tim interviews Tony again. They talk about health, investing and living a good life. If you’re looking for an intro to Tim Ferriss’ podcast, checkout Jamie Foxx, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Naval Ravikant, Sebastian Junger, Cal Fussman.

Kiernan Dougherty on Jocko Podcast

Jocko Willink is ex special forces and talks about war, discipline and other interesting things. Parts can be tough to listen to, especially in this episode, but this episode is extraordinary. Kiernan is a veteran war and natural disaster photographer in places like Iraq, Belfast and the indian ocean tsunami. He tells his story on this podcast.

(more…)