Frontier and Growth Markets | January 28, 2017

Ignia demonstrates investment opportunities in Mexico’s emerging middle class

ImpactAlpha
The team at

ImpactAlpha

Inclusive Economics

Monterey-based venture capital firm Ignia has invested $200 million in companies supporting upward economic mobility. The emerging middle class represents 70 percent of the population, with $426 billion in annual purchasing power.

Ignia’s latest investments have been in Abra, a mobile money startup using blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin; Pangea Money Transfer, an app-based cash transfer service targeted at the $25 billion Mexicans in the U.S. send home every year; and Sr. Pago, which lets even unbanked merchants accept credit cards.

“The Mexico of tomorrow will be built by the small and medium-sized businesses of today,” says Ignia’s founder, Álvaro Rodríguez. “The emerging middle class is just as viable and successful a market as the top of the pyramid.”

Photo: Gabriela Esquivel