Greg Mitchell

Marcos Brujis: A legacy of borderless optimism

Marcos Brujis was a loyal Peruvian whose embrace of humanity expanded from Latin America across all emerging markets. Over his long career as an investor, he inspired billions of dollars in capital to support projects, companies, and entrepreneurs all over the world.

Marcos was born in Lima in 1952. After studying at McGill, he worked at HSBC, then joined the IFC where he spent the better part of many years traveling the world persuading asset managers to dedicate funds to Latin America and other emerging markets.

It’s simple for U.S. investors to invest in Peru startups

More and more startups in Peru are receiving investment from U.S. investors. Many of these startups have reached product-market fit and some have already scaled across multiple countries in Latin America.

This trend is partly due to the growing tendency for Peru startups to set up U.S.-based entities as holding companies. Founders are using Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) financing documents, the standard document for early stage U.S. startups, allowing them to raise money from a wide variety of investors.

Photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos on Unsplash

Youth Movement

Peru’s young people took to the streets last week and made their voices heard. Peaceful protests were met with police aggression and two people, Inti Sotelo Camargo and Jack Brian Pintado Sánchez, were killed. By Monday of this week, a new President, Francisco Sagasti, was chosen by congress to lead the country. President Sagasti has held many roles in his career, including leading FINCyT, a government fund to support initiatives in science and innovation.

Photo credit: Unknown. Source: https://twitter.com/psecada/status/1326908154882502662?s=20

From hunters to startup entrepreneurs

Women in Peru have been breaking paradigms for thousands of years. Literally.

This week, archaeologists concluded that 9,000 year-old skeleton of a woman found in the Andean highlands in Peru indicated that she was a hunter, rather than a gatherer. She was buried with a “big-game hunting kit,” according to the New York Times. While this finding was surprising to some scientists, it won’t be to the many female startup founders currently living in Peru today.

In fact, also this week, three Peruvian women were selected as finalists for the WeXchange Pitch Competition as part of the WeXchange forum, the largest forum for female technology entrepreneurs in Latin America.

Innovate Summit brings together the region’s top entrepreneurs

Most conferences in Peru have themes that are variations of “How can we build a better future?” Well, next week’s Innovate Peru Summit shows that the future is here and is being built by tech entrepreneurs.

With speakers like David Velez, CEO of Nubank, Mariana Costa, CEO of Laboratoria, and Simon Borreo, CEO of Rappi, it isn’t exaggeration to say this is the most significant conference of the year in Peru.

Sinba achieves landmark investment round

We are experiencing accelerating changes in food consumption in Latin America, and it is essential to tackle the sustainability issue now. Peru startup Sinba does just that, and investors have taken notice.

While well-known tech startups aim to get food to the end consumer, Sinba ensures the food waste is dealt with properly. Founders Pipo Reiser and Andrea Rivera recently raised an investment round that included participation from local individual investors and IDB Lab.

Here what you need to know about the round:

Pivots and Persistence

This week I’m sharing an article I recently wrote for Crunchbase. Many startups have found innovative ways to adapt and thrive through the current crisis. There are great examples from across Latin America, including a few startups with presence in Peru: Fitco, Poliglota and Joinnus.

You can find the article here: Pivots And Persistence: How Startups In Latin America Are Finding Ways To Survive The Current Crisis.

I hope you enjoy it and are as impressed as I am by startup founders’ capacity to adapt and persist over the last seven months.

Entrevista con Luis Narro, Director Ejecutivo de PECAP

Luis Narro es Director Ejecutivo de la Asociación Peruana de Capital Semilla y Emprendedor (PECAP). Previamente trabajó en Swiss EP y COFIDE. Más de 5 años de experiencia trabajando con organizaciones de soporte del ecosistema de emprendimiento en Perú, en especial, con los inversionistas de capital emprendedor.

Peru’s startup opportunity (gap)

Recently, ALLVP Research launched in twitter a Beta Version of a Latin America TechXplorers – Desitation Map. It shows in a graphic way the startups that have raised Series A rounds and have “boots on the ground” in different countries.

First, let’s give credit where credit is due. The work is being done by Peruvian Alexandra Jenkins, Senior Analyst at ALLVP. You can write her with ideas and updates at ajenkins@allvp.vc.

Source: ALLVP Research – Write ajenkins@allvp.vc to help keep it updated.

New entrants

Last year, I wrote about investment professionals from Peru taking on regional roles in the venture capital industry in Latin America. Well, the talent pool of Peruvians working in the startup community in Latin America continues to grow.

20+ Startups accelerating through 2020

By some measures, this has been a down year for Peru startups seeking to enter acceleration programs. For example, no Peru startups were selected for the latest batches of Y Combinator or 500 Startups Latam.

However, in many ways, founders in Peru or local acceleration programs are moving forward. Only in the last month, over 20 up-and-coming Peru startups were selected to particiate in acceleration programs. Many are relative newcomers to the startup community.

PECAP First Half Report

The Peruvian Association of Seed and Venture Capital (PECAP) has published its first half report for 2020.

The key highlights are:

9 interviews with founders and investors in Peru

Don’t worry, Ruta Startup is not launching a podcast.

Fortunately, there is no need. A great library of podcast content already exists for the regional tech scene, and the top podcasts in Latin America are interviewing members of the Peru startup community.

Here are a few podcasts featuring startup founders and investors in Peru.

PVCS Masterclass: Preparando mi primera ronda de capital con inversionistas profesionales

On Wednesday August 19th, Roberte Arbe and I had the opportunity to share with startup founders during the Peru Venture Capital Series. We discussed considerations for raising funds from professional investors.

The session is in Spanish and titled: Preparando mi primera ronda de capital con inversionistas profesionales.

You can watch it on Youtube here.

There are two more days of the Peru Venture Capital Series next week, Wednesday the 26th and Thursday the 27th.

The event is free and you can register here.

Towards a digital transformation of Peru

Many dominant corporations in Peru are currently in the midst of digital transformation. These initiatives to incorporate new technology help companies to maintain market share and add value to society by offering digital solutions to customers.

But, haven’t corporations had enough time to figure this out? Isn’t something still missing? Isn’t time for a new status quo?

I think so.