TropicalGringo.com » vc

The Tropical Future

admin — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:20:32 +0000

It’s been quite a week. I was finally able to write about a VC round closing in Colombia. A local VC actually closed a $1.3M series A round with social gaming company, Zio Studios, based in Colombia. This has been the talk of the town down here since VC investing is pretty non-existent here (although, private equity investing is pretty well-established). It’s really another example of how things are changing making geography less of an obstacle and more of a choice of life.

Last week, I also wrote in a local portal called KienyKe about the stuff going on in the Middle East with the toppling of Mubarak in Egypt and the turmoil in the other countries. In this new world we’re living in, if entrepreneurs aren’t connected to other world-class entrepreneurs and investors, it’s almost becoming a matter of choice. As I said, geography is becoming less of an obstacle.

Even within the Latin American region, digital strategies that target the whole region used to emanate from countries such as Brazil and Mexico and, on occasion, from Argetina (Mercado Libre) or Chile. Nevertheless, now companies such as PagosOnline with their Latin American Payments (see video) strategy and VivaReal are targeting Latin America all from a headquarters based in Colombia.

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Brazil is Hot, Hot, Hot!

admin — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 10:36:41 +0000

Brazilian startup and investment activity just continues to heat up. It’s not enough that, at the end of last year, Tiger Management and Accel partners invested US $30M in Vostu and Insight Venture Partners invested an undisclosed amount in Mentez, two Brazilian social gaming companies. Now, comes news that none other than premier VC firm, Benchmark Capital, just invested in Brazilian social buying company Peixe Urbano. Conclusion: Brazil is hot, hot, hot!

It was only six months ago that I wrote that article for VentureBeat and the NYTimes.com about the fact that US web companies are starting to look at Latin America for strategic acquisitions. Now, VC’s are looking at countries such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina, but Brazil is, by far, the big blip on their radar screens.

It’s all part of a global trend whereby new players are disrupting established companies in industry after industry by incorporating the ever present web (mobile and otherwise) into their unique value proposition. These new players enter markets with more competitive business models and start to take share away from traditional companies in industries such as retail, commerce, media, financial services, entertainment and more.

There are a number of reasons why Brazil is in the lead including the size of the country, the investments in infrastructure and the growing importance of that economy on the world stage. Nevertheless, another reason is the Brazilians themselves (professionalism, creativity, world view, and ability to execute) and, here, other countries in Latin America can learn a thing or two (although, I think Chileans and Argentineans are keeping step nicely).

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The Reinvention of Industry

admin — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 02:56:56 +0000

A point I’ve been harping on within my consulting engagements and during my workshops is the fact that, in my opinion, a deep transformation is taking place before our eyes. The last few years have witnessed the toppling industries that, as a child, I took for granted as powerful and enduring. Last year, more than 200 US newspapers went bankrupt, the music industry distribution channel has been reshaped and a good number of banks failed and others would have failed were it not for government help.

Now, before going to bed, I read that a number of high powered players in tech and the VC industry have created a US $250M fund to invest in companies focused on the “social web.” Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, one of the investors in the fund, states that “We think every industry is going to get fundamentally rethought and redesigned around people.” Nothing like validation from the likes of Zuckerberg, Bezos and John Doerr for a guy in faraway Colombia.

Nevertheless, I actually think that the opportunities are even greater in emerging regions such as Latin America. This is the reason that I’ve been giving workshops on what I call Digital Innovation in order to get people up to speed on the changes happening and to provide practice (through exercises) in the use of tools to reinvent their business models. If you’re in Colombia, register for the next workshop on December 15th.

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The Word is Getting Out – Latin America is Full of Digital Innovators

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:30:48 +0000

I’ve been so busy contributing to other publications that I’ve been falling behind in posting to my own blog. Lately, I’ve been writing articles about companies such as Vivareal in Colombia and Compra3 in Brazil each with excellent prospects for the future. I’ve been psyched to see these articles published in the NYTimes and in Venturebeat. There is such a tremendous opportunity in this region for setting up dev centers, targeting the region for products and services or both.

I just got back from a night of Salsa and Sushi with the Mrs. and, after waking up at 2:30am this morning should be hitting the sack. Nevertheless, as if the day hasn’t been good enough, I just read Chris Brogan’s post on Colombia. By now, I’m used to seeing fellow “Gringos” wowed by the life down here, but it’s so great to see someone who appreciates that aspect, but, more importantly, objectively, sees the tremendous potential down here.

That was just the cap to a truly amazing day where, aside from happy family times, I had some great meetings with top executives at two major multinationals down here, a financial services company and a friend who works at Twitter that I finally met in person (she’s down here). Aside from all of this, Compra3 (amazing founders) had their production launch of their social commerce site, which I was able to write about to get the word out.

I should really back all of this up with more numbers and statistics, but I’m too tired tonight. I’ll leave that for another post.

Conclusion: there’s no doubt in my mind that Latin America is going through a transformation and that, within the next 5 years, the number of US VC/angel backed digital innovators with either dev centers or target market (or both) down here will explode.

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