Community – Ruta Startup

uDocz’s investment round shows Peru is an Edtech hub

Peruvian start up uDocz recently announced an investment round led by GSV Ventures, one of the most prominent Edtech venture capital firms in the world. This is GSV Ventures’s first investment in a Latin American startup. GSV has previously invested in well known EdTech startups including Coursera, Degreed, and Guild Education.

uDocz Founder Carlos Effio and his team of 20 employees have been hard at work over the past four years quietly building one of the largest libraries of Spanish language content for college students. uDocz’s customers are primarily university students and students studying to apply to university. uDocz’s active user base has achieved significant growth since the outbreak of the pandemic enabling university students to study remotely and continue learning. uDocz is an example of how disruptive edtech startups are transforming and improving the quality of education in Latin America.

50 startups in Peru ready to take-off

Recently announced successful rounds in Peruvian startups have highlighted the quality of local startup founders. They are also validation that Lima offers a great starting point for launching regional tech businesses. Examples of startups that have raised significant rounds of capital over the last twelve months are: Crack the Code, Crehana, Chazki, Favo, Leasy, and Turbodega. Add to these startup rounds the recent acquisition of Freshmart by Justo, and you have a multiple examples of capital entering Peru across a range of sectors and stages. Importantly, the capital is coming from top tier venture capital funds across Latin America, including Tiger Global, Elevar Equity, General Atlantic, and Kaszek.

The good news for investors is that this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of Peru’s startup potential. There is a growing list of up-and-coming startups in Peru. Most of these companies have achieved product market fit, raised a solid seed stage round and are growing fast. They have been supported by local seed investors including, AVP, Inca Ventures, The Board, UTEC Ventures, and Winnipeg Capital, all funded by private capital. In addition, local programs EmprendeUP, Endeavor ScaleUP, and USIL Ventures, have all provided essential support to get startups to the seed stage in a position of strength. These local sources of funding and support open up new paths to success for Peru’s startups.

Yes, you can trust startup founders

The personal qualities of typical startup founders coupled with structural dynamics of startup investing, ensure that mutual trust pays dividends.

Here are some reasons why it makes sense to trust startup founders:

Still on the cusp

Peru’s startup moment has arrived. What are we waiting for?

In early 2020, I wrote that Peru’s startup ecosystem was ready for a leap forward. The country was at the inflection point of building a vibrant venture capital industry. Then the pandemic hit. Two years later, Peru’s local venture capital industry seems to be running in place.

The startup community we imagined

Imagine a world in which Peru startup Manzana Verde raises from FJ Labs, Fitia gets into Y Combinator, Fitco gets into Techstars, venture capital analyst Enzo Cavalie lands a job at a top US venture firm, and serial founder Amparo Nalvarte begins investing in startups. This is the world we imagined for the Peru startup community. This is the world we live in now.

The list of tangible results that Peruvian startup founders, and the Peru ecosystem, are achieving is impressive and growing longer. A dynamic combination of local funding and global disruption is democratizing capital, making it easier for startup founders to find a way to achieve regional and global success.

A new financing path for Peru startups

Peru startup founders never lacked aspiration, they just lacked options.

After five years of facing limited financing options in Peru that required founders to take a traditional, and local, path to raising capital, a new route has opened.

Has Mexico decoupled?

The recent mega rounds in Mexico, Flink ($12 million), Justo ($65 million) and Valoreo ($50 million), occurred within a few weeks. The size of these rounds marked new highs for Seed and Series A rounds in Mexico.

Let’s face it, this is way beyond the scope of what is happening in Peru. These rounds indicate the gap between Mexico’s startup ecosystem and the rest of Spanish-speaking Latin America may be widending, not shrinking.

Salkantay Ventures receives backing from IDB Lab

Recently, IBD Lab announced its first commitment to a Peru-based venture capital fund, Salkantay Ventures. Given the IDB Lab’s history as a first mover in backing early stage funds in the region, this is a strong message of support for the Salkantay team as well as the wider Peru startup community. Peru has reached a critical mass of capabilities in both building startups and investing in them.

Peruvian pushing the boundaries of deep tech

When you meet startup founder Tomás Vega, you won’t get too far into the conversation before he tells you that he wants to become a Cyborg!

What Tomás is doing is crazy. The good type of crazy. The break-boundaries-of-science type of crazy. The type of crazy Linda Rottenberg, founder of Endeavor, talks about in her book Crazy is a Compliment.

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.