The Mexican venture capital fund (Venture Capital) Jaguar Ventures changed his name to Wolf and is in the process of raising $ 100 million before the first quarter of 2022, as part of its third fund with which it seeks to finance early-stage startups. In your portfolio, Wolf It has companies that have reached a value of 1,000 million dollars, that is, they are considered unicorn: Konfío, Loft and Nubank.
According Christopher Perdomo and Eric Pérez-Grovas, the name change responds to two situations: that the name Jaguar Ventures It is used by many private equity funds around the world and that, unlike the jaguar, the animal that gave the fund its name; the wolf (Wollef in Luxembourgish) is an animal that hunts in a herd, thus better reflecting the mentality of the investments it makes: working as a team.
Wolf made its first fundraising in 2014, for 9.3 million dollars, with which it invested in companies that have now become benchmarks among startups: such as the aggregator of payment methods Conekta or the loan platform Konfío. He created a second fund for 22 million in 2019, with which he has invested in companies such as the direct-to-consumer (DTC) Rio Grande, the fintech Jeeves and the Colombian from dark kitchens (dark kitchens) Foodology, your most recent investment. So far it has invested in 31 startups, of which 10 have been based in Mexico and 21 abroad.
According to investors, although the third fund of this Venture Capital is the largest in its history, the theses with which they will finance startups are basically the same: investment in an early stage (seed) and investment in equipment , that is, in the ability of entrepreneurs to attract talent. Among the successful exits of the Pérez-Grovas and Perdomo fund are the sale of part of their shares in the payment aggregator Conekta to corporate Femsa and that of the Argentine company for the sale of used cars Checkars to the now unicorn Kavak.
We invest in people who show us that they have extraordinary ability to execute. We are faithful believers that the idea is worth but your ability to achieve it is worth much more. It is also true that we invest in people who have a very ambitious vision, ”he said.
On the investor side, while the first fund was financed with resources from family offices and individual investors, all Mexican, the second included foreign investors, especially from Latin America and the United States, as well as two institutional investors. For the third fund, whose resources they hope to finish raising by the first quarter of 2022, they foresee that many of the previous investors will contribute their capital again, in addition to attracting more foreign investors.
According to Pérez-Grovas, who was the first director of Free Market in Mexico, in addition to the fact that he founded and chairs the Mexican Association of Online Sales (AMVO), another of the investment theses that the fund maintains with the name change is that they are very jealous of the information of the companies in which they invest; Besides, they are the only ones who decide on the projects in which they are going to invest.
According to investors, many of the startups that are now succeeding in Latin America are getting closer and closer to conducting Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), so many foreign investors who want to have exposure to the Latin American market seek to invest in regional funds such as Wollef .
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx