Colombia VC to bridge Southeast Asia, Latin America

Latin Leap was founded last year by serial entrepreneur Stefan Krautwald, who has more than 10 years' experience in the Colombian technology start-up ecosystem. The new fund aims to back about 10 Southeast Asian companies at the Series B and C stages and help them navigate Latin America's unfamiliar supply chains, customer engagement processes, talent pools, back-office requirements, and regulatory regimes. Core industries include education, healthcare, financial inclusion, and urban mobility.  

"These two regions have so much in common but that's been traditionally overlooked because historically, culturally, and economically, there hasn't been much overlap," Krautwald told AVCJ. "But if you look at countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, and compare them with Colombia, Peru, and Mexico, there are many similarities in where people are economically. There are also many solutions from Southeast Asia that suit the needs of emerging markets that could be applied in Latin America in different verticals."

Latin Leap has established a partnership with Enterprise Singapore, whereby the government-run investor will make introductions to relevant start-ups. Similar relationships have been established with Singapore-based firms Golden Gate Ventures, Monk's Hill Ventures, and Decacorn Capital. All capital deployed by the cross-border fund will be used exclusively for Latin American expansion agendas. A shortlisted pipeline of about 30 companies is now under consideration.  

Colombia is seen as an ideal beachhead for expansions into Latin America because it bridges the region's sub-geographies across the northern and southern hemispheres. It also has a reputation for progressive innovation policy. The country has produced one of Latin America's largest unicorns in e-commerce delivery app Rappi. It is seen as sufficiently large to be interesting but without the intense competition and scaling challenges that start-ups experience in more prized markets such as Mexico and Brazil. 

Latin Leap hopes to attract a mix of Latin and Southeast Asian LPs. The GP claims to have extensive business networks in South America and has flagged potential to leverage its partnership with Enterprise Singapore to access other Singapore government investors. Expectations for a first close have been pushed out due to uncertainty around the coronavirus outbreak. However, Latin Leap will mobilize its initial seed funding in the coming weeks to make a number of small investments, with a focus on enterprise-facing models. 

"In B2B, everyone speaks the language of business, so on that level, the cultural differences – with us in the middle – are not that much of an issue," Krautwald said. "We've seen B2B companies require less funding and normally encounter less competition. We're not talking about the Grabs and Go-jeks that already have their super app counterparts in Latin America. In the vast majority of cases, we're talking about companies with specific solutions in specific sectors and unique selling propositions for local markets."

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• North America
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Expansion
• Singapore
• seed
• Latin Leap