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.”
Among the LPs 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.
Actively raising
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).
Serial and emerging GPs in the region are in the market with funds to deploy fresh capital key sectors across the region. Eight Latin America-focused funds on ImpactAlpha’s refreshed Liist are collectively raising roughly $800 million. One of them, Mexico-based Savia Ventures, recently completed its final close.
The largest funds on the Liist are being offered by veteran fund managers. Dalus Capital 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. The 10-year-old firm is in the market with its third fund, which has a target of $100 million. With JICA’s investment, Dalus is more than halfway to its target.
Colombia and Costa Rica-based EcoEnterprises Fund has for 25 years been investing in Latin America’s ecological protection and restoration while supporting the local livelihoods that depend on the region’s natural resources. It’s in the market to raise $150 million for its fourth fund.
“We see a tremendous pipeline of investment opportunities in Latin America, with companies that are ready to scale up, to professionalize, be more ambitious, both about their operational and commercial goals and becoming real leaders in a change process in the region,” EcoEnterprises’ Julia Santander told ImpactAlpha in a video interview.
Gawa Capital’s Kuali Fund is layering first-loss, concessional debt and commercial capital to raise a target $300 million to support climate adaptation in rural communities across Latin America.
Most of the managers featured on the Liist are coming into the market for the first time with new impact theses. Amazonia Impact Ventures, based in the UK, is filling a debt gap for women and Indigenous communities in the Amazon for sustainable agroforestry, forest management and biodiversity preservation. The firm, which was incubated at the Catalytic Climate Finance Facility, is in the market with its first fund and a $25 million fundraising target.
Mexico-based Savia Ventures just closed its first fund at $8 million, shy of its initial $10 million target, owing to the difficult fundraising environment. The firm invests in new climate tech ventures in need of pre-seed equity capital.
“Latin America is the largest untapped climate market opportunity right now,” Savia’s Andres Beahr told ImpactAlpha (watch ImpactAlpha’s video interview with Beahr).
Also on the Liist: Singapore-based Circulate Capital launched its first Latin America investment strategy in July with a goal of moving $150 million into the region’s circular economy and plastic recycling infrastructure. Total Impact Capital’s Azure Source Capital fund invests in finance water service providers in Central America. The firm just secured a $4 million investment from family office Ceniarth.
Winnipeg Ventures, an education-focused impact investor in Latin America, teamed up with Seedstars on a planned $30 million fund to invest in early stage startups delivering educational attainment, workforce readiness and high-demand skills training in Spanish-speaking Latin America.
