ImpactAlpha Latin America

Latin American LPs and GPs convene in Mérida

Dennis Price · February 26, 2025
MERIDA, MEXICO

Saludos, Agents of Impact! 

It’s been a year since we launched ImpactAlpha Latin America at the Latin America Impact Investing Forum to cover the vibrant impact investing community taking shape in Latin America and the Caribbean. As FLII convenes again this week in Mérida, we mark a dozen editions of the monthly newsletter and celebrate the thousands of Agents of Impact in, and interested in, one of the world’s most dynamic regions for impact investing. In Mérida? Say hi! 

👉 Partner with ImpactAlpha: Sponsor the newsletter to reach our audience and build the impact ecosystem in Latin America

¡Empecemos! – Dennis Price

In this month’s newsletter:

  • LPs and GPs ‘flip the pitch’
  • Lending to agri-small businesses
  • Latin America’s role transition to a sustainable economy

Latin America’s LPs and GPs ‘flip the pitch’ to mobilize impactful capital. Owners and managers of impact capital gathered at a hacienda on the edge of Mérida, Mexico, on Tuesday to flip the pitch, or more precisely “FLIIp the Pitch,” at the Latin American Impact Investing Forum (ImpactAlpha is a FLII media partner). In a reverse-pitch format, LPs presented their strategies and priorities to an audience of GPs seeking capital to scale their impact investment strategies. The impact investing opportunity in Latin America is “extremely attractive,” Michiko Kogure of Japan’s International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, told ImpactAlpha. Japan’s development bank last week committed $1 billion to the JICA Trust Fund at IDB Invest to invest in sustainable growth across Latin America and the Caribbean. In November, JICA invested $15 million in the third fund of Monterrey, Mexico-based Dalus Capital. “I see the great potential for fund managers in Latin America,” said Kogure, who joined LPs in pitching the region’s GPs at FLII. “That is underlined by the possibility of scaling up and expanding in the region due to similarities in language and culture, the breadth and depth of networks, as well as strong commitment to sustainable growth.”

  • LPs in the room. Among those pitching: Fernando Alcalá of food giant Bimbo’s pension fund; Carlos Alberto Ochoa from the corporate venture fund of Bancolombia; Bahaa Eddine, who invests from the endowment of Philips Foundation; Ana Laura Fernandez of the Latam Impact Fund fund of funds; and investment officers from development finance institutions like IDB Lab, CAF and Germany’s DEG. Separately, Medellín Venture Capital, a program co-led by Medellín’s municipality and its innovation center Ruta N, committed to deploy $1.2 million in micro-VCs investing in mobility, health, air quality, energy, circular economy and deeptech in the city.
  • Impactful fund managers. GPs at FLIIp the Pitch included serial fund managers, such as Dalus Capital(Mexico), New Ventures Capital (Mexico), Inversor (Colombia), Deetken Impact (Canada), and Vox Capital (Brazil). Also in the room were first-time fund managers Amplifica Capital (Mexico), Impacta.VC (Uruguay), Exagon Impact Capital (Colombia), Impaqto Capital (Ecuador), and Regenera Ventures Capital (Mexico).
  • Actively raising. Eight Latin America-focused funds on ImpactAlpha’s refreshed Liist are collectively raising roughly $800 million. The largest funds on the Liist are being offered by veteran fund managers like Dalus, which provides early- and growth-stage equity to startups in Latin America addressing livelihoods and financial inclusion, access to education and healthcare, and increasingly, climate change. Dalus is targeting $100 million with its third fund. Colombia and Costa Rica-based EcoEnterprises Fund, which invests in Latin America’s ecological protection and restoration, is raising $150 million for its fourth fund. New fund manager Amazonia Impact Ventures, which is filling a debt gap for women and Indigenous communities in the Amazon, is raising a $25 million first fund.
  • Keep reading, “Latin American LPs and GPs ‘flip the pitch’ to mobilize impactful capital,” by Dennis Price on ImpactAlpha. Know a fund that should be on The Liist? Suggest additions here.

Dealflow: Agrifood Finance

IDB Invest inks $40 million loan to support Latin America’s agri-small businesses. The investment arm of the Inter-American Development Bank delivered financing to two subsidiaries of the Latin American Agribusiness Development Corp., a 50-year old organization that lends to small businesses in the agrifood value chain. LAAD has made more than $1.1 billion loans to the region’s small businesses. Central America, the Caribbean and the Andean region, all underserved by traditional financial institutions, are its biggest lending regions. In the past two years, LAAD has seen increased demand from banana and coffee producers, in particular. IDB Invest’s loan is being paired with technical assistance to boost LAAD’s lending and portfolio management capacity. The partners are looking for additional investors to match the funding. 

  • More from IDB. The agency launched a billion-dollar fund to spur private investment in Latin America and the Caribbean. With Corporación Financiera de Desarrollo, it also provided $100 million to BBVA Perú to support lending to women-led micro and small businesses in Peru. And Madrid-based Mundi Ventures secured $5 million from IDB Invest for its Latin America fund, which invests in companies driving financial inclusion, protection and resilience in the region.
  • Check it out. 

Dealflow overflow. More investment news crossing our desks:

  • Alternative fuels. Cargill is acquiring an additional 50% stake in Brazilian biofuels producer SJC Bioenergia, giving the agricultural commodities giant full ownership as it looks to tap into Brazil’s expanding biofuels market.
  • Financial inclusion. Quona Capital led a $6 million seed round in Brazilian fintech venture Neofin, which helps banks and other financial services firms with debt collection… Brazil’s Azos raised $30.5 million from Lightrock, Kaszek, Prosus, Maya Capital and Propel to make health and life insurance policies more accessible.
  • Fund milestones. Family office Ceniarth made a $4 million investment in Azure Source Capital to finance water service providers in Central America… BlueOrchard closed its second emerging markets climate insurance fund at $100 million.
  • Green transition. Atta Impact backed Albedo Solar to install solar for Guatemala’s small businesses… Solar startup Niko Energy secured $23 million in a mix of equity and debt financing to build a green virtual power plant in Mexico… Also in Mexico, Vemo notched $64 million to build out its network of EV leasing, charging and fleet management.

Impact Voices: Brazil

Latin America’s central role in the transition to a sustainable and inclusive economy. “We are still here,” declare Vitoria Junqueira and Ricardo Ramos of Alianca pelo Impacto, Brazil’s national advisory board for impact investing, in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. Newly elected leaders around the world promising to defend national interests and restore prosperity don’t lack ambition. They lack strategies given the urgent climate and inequality challenges we face, argue the Brazilian champions of impact investing. Despite Latin America’s crucial role in global environmental stability, for example, home to 57% of the world’s primary forests, the region’s impact investing market is valued at just $4.7 billion, a fraction of the $1.6 trillion in global impact assets under management. “Latin America is not a passive beneficiary of impact investments,” they write. “It is a central player in the global transition toward a sustainable and impact-driven economy.” Unlocking the region’s full potential, they say, “requires a paradigm shift in capital allocation.”

  • Growth market. Latin America holds the key to a more resilient and impactful world, say Junqueira and Ramos, who are leading a delegation of Brazilian impact investors to FLII. In Brazil, “We are not holding back in our efforts to strengthen the country’s impact economy” (catch up on last month’s Call, “Huge opportunities and trickle of capital make Brazil an impact growth market”). Thousands of impact entrepreneurs are driving financial sustainability and economic inclusion. More than 20 active impact funds have built extensive expertise in financing transformative projects. Eco Invest Brazil, an initiative of the Brazilian government, is attracting foreign private investment to accelerate Brazil’s ecological transition. Enimpacto, the country’s national strategy to accelerate its impact economy, unites supply, demand, intermediaries and regulators around Brazil’s economic transformation.
  • Call to action. “As investors, policymakers, and business leaders, we have a shared responsibility to direct capital where it is most needed – toward solutions that drive lasting, positive impact,” write Junqueira and Ramos. “The question is: will you join us before it’s too late?”
  • Keep reading, “Latin America’s central role in the transition to a sustainable and inclusive economy,” by Vitoria Junqueira and Ricardo Ramos.

Get in the Game

🏃🏽‍♀️ On the Move

Virgilio Barco steps down as Acumen’s Latin America director to commit full time to ALIVE Ventures as a managing partner. Acumen is hiring a new Latin America director in Bogota… Atta Impact Capital appoints Verne’s Alejandra Garcia, Corinne Lebrun of Impacta VC, and Mastersfund’s Gillian Muessig to its board members… Beatriz Ospina, former head of international members and programs coordinator for Latimpacto, joins Kiva as investment manager.

💼 Step Up

BlueOrchard Finance is on the hunt for a senior investment officer in Lima, Peru… IFC is looking for an infrastructure senior investment officer in Mexico City… Community Investment Management is hiring a director of investments in Mexico City.

🤝 Meet Up

Don’t miss these ImpactAlpha partner events: