This Tuesday it was announced that Google CEO, Eric Schmidt’s, investment vehicle, Tomorrow Ventures, invested in a Chilean web event management company called Welcu. The company has already gartnered an impressive list of corporate clients from Coca-cola to BBDO. The fact that Schmidt’s investment company chose a company in Latin America for it’s 22nd investment attests to the fact that this region should be on the radar screen of more and more investors.
It’s important to note that Welcu is not simply a clone of established companies such as Eventbrite and others, but provides some innovation by more thoroughly integrating a social layer throughout its event management platform. The company has an impressive list of previous investors including Oskar Hjertonsson who recently sold his company (along with his cofounders) to Groupon.
According to Kutchera, who has interviewed marketing executives from Ford, Best Buy and other companies, the Latino/Hispanic culture tends to be much more social and less individualistic than other cultures such as that in the states. The article goes on to cite someone who mentions that Hispanics and Latinos are the fastest growing group on the Internet and will command $1.3 trillion in purchasing power by 2014.
How can Latin Americans take advantage of the understanding of social media and develop new digital innovations? Just as the chinese market has generated numerous home-grown startups that understand the nuances of that local market, I believe the same opportunity certainly exists in Latin America (albeit, taking different size markets into account).
Recently, Simon Olson, a partner at FIR Capital Partners in Brazil, during a recent talk at Standford University, spoke precisely about the available opportunities within that market. Please click on his name (above) and subscribe to his blog as he’s certainly someone to follow.
In the video below, Simon also mentions how Brazilians, great social media adopters, are working to relay that into innovative startups that leverage social media.In Brazil, the growth in number and quality of startups is incredible. This should make other countries in Latin America sit up and take notice as Chile, Argentina and Mexico have.
Below is the video from Simon’s talk. It’s excellent and eye-opening for investors unaware of the opportunities in Brazil.
This Tuesday it was announced that Google CEO, Eric Schmidt’s, investment vehicle, Tomorrow Ventures, invested in a Chilean web event management company called Welcu. The company has already gartnered an impressive list of corporate clients from Coca-cola to BBDO. The fact that Schmidt’s investment company chose a company in Latin America for it’s 22nd investment attests to the fact that this region should be on the radar screen of more and more investors.