From Mexico through Central America’s Northern Triangle to Chile and Argentina, fund managers in Latin America are finding overlooked opportunities for impact – and returns – in the region.
Battling a venture capital correction in Latin America, managers are betting on the region’s entrepreneurial talent, youthful population and homegrown solutions to climate and inclusive growth.
Larger venture firms such as Softbank and General Atlantic have delivered strong returns on the Latin America investments, notes Ana Maria Aristizabal of Winnipeg Ventures, an edtech and future of work fund targeting the region. “A new generation of emerging managers is building on those positive trends to deliver high returns.”
Hear the perspectives of five fund managers in these video interviews from this year’s FLII in Merída, Mexico:
Ana Maria Aristizabal of Winnipeg Ventures is investing in the future of education and work in Latin America (video interview).
Education and workforce startups in the region have mostly been limited to more general funds. Winnipeg, which has backed 13 companies, is actively raising the “go-to fund that can actually lead rounds, that can support them in their own way, that can connect the dots, that can bring other investors from the region or overseas to support their growth,” says Aristizabal.
Christian Quiñones of Innogen Capital is backing impact startups in Central America’s Northern Triangle (video interview).
The San Salvador-based fund manager raised one of the earliest impact funds in Central America and is actively raising its third fund with catalytic funding from the U.S. International Development Finance Corp to invest in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The fund aims to help reduce migration, create fairly paid jobs, and generate a bigger ecosystem, says Quiñones. “It’s the last uncharted territory for venture capital in LatAm.”
Aldo Soto of Amazonia Impact Ventures is providing sustainability-linked loans to indigenous producers in the Amazon (video interview).
The impact-first fund manager is raising its first fund to promote sustainable land use, forest restoration and improved livelihoods in the Amazon. By lending through cooperatives, Amazonia can reach thousands of Indigenous farmers and producers, who Soto calls “strategic actors to address climate change and biodiversity loss.”
Andres Baehr of Savia Ventures is unlocking Latin America’s climate tech opportunity (video interview).
The Mexico City-based climate tech VC is actively raising and has backed five startups from its first fund. Latin America “is the largest untapped climate market opportunity right now,” says Beahr, citing lower valuations, abundance of natural resources and nearshoring trends in northern Mexico and Central America. “All of that will need solutions that reduce the amount of energy, optimize logistics and use better processes,” he says. “And all of that is climate tech.”
Justin Schwartz of Impaqto Capital delivers revenue-based finance for Andean impact businesses (video interview).
IMPAQTO Capital provides flexible, revenue-based finance to impact companies that are too small for institutional equity financing or bank debt in the Andean region, including Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. “As a local fund, we know the entrepreneurs well, we know the ecosystem well,” says Schwartz. “We can be one of the first checks and help those companies have more visibility at the regional and global level.”
