(Alta Ventures) August 17, 2012 – Alta Ventures Mexico announced the completion of its final close on 70M dollars for its first venture fund in Mexico. Since its founding in 2010, Alta Ventures has become the leader in a new generation of technology funds entering Mexico.
The success of Alta Ventures Mexico has been accelerated by the growth of the Mexican economy. The $1.15 trillion dollar Mexican economy grew faster than Brazil last year and is on track to double Brazil’s GDP growth in 2012. Mexico has positive and growing demographics, low country debt, and macro-financial and political stability.
“This highly educated generation of Mexican entrepreneurs is poised to transform the country. Alta Ventures is well positioned to provide the fuel the Mexican entrepreneurs need to capitalize on the massive growth opportunities in Mexico and abroad,” said Rogelio De los Santos, Alta Ventures founding partner. “Mexico’s recent Olympic gold medal for soccer in the London games is a metaphor for how Mexico is now positioned in Latin America”, said Dave McClure, 500 Startups founder and investor in Alta Ventures Mexico.
This debut fund was led by International Finance Corporation (IFC), Fondo de Fondos (CMIC) and the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), with the legal work provided by NY law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP. The majority of Alta’s capital came from 29 family offices based in Monterrey, Mexico. Additional investors include Dave McClure from 500 Startups, the Guadalajara Angel Investment Network (GAIN) and two US family offices. “The MIF was one of the first investors in Alta Ventures. When we decided to invest, we were excited seeing the potential this Fund had to support the establishment of a dynamic ecosystem in Mexico while investing in high-growth startups and established companies. Today, Alta Ventures is already delivering attractive returns to the investors. Through their many initiatives, the partners at Alta Ventures have linked all relevant actors of the Mexican VC industry who are now working together to build a country focused on innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Susana Garcia Robles, principal investment officer at MIF in charge of the Early Stage Equity Group.
This broad base of support has allowed Alta Ventures to access deal flow in all regions of Mexico and the United States and to provide high impact entrepreneurs with a platform to access both markets. “We are glad to have found support and enthusiasm from the local community. This is the first time that Mexican individuals and families are co-investing in a vehicle that supports Mexico’s top entrepreneurs. Definitely, Alta’s investment network is one of the strongest in Mexico,” said Paul Ahlstrom, Alta Ventures founding partner.
Alta Ventures is a technology-focused venture fund targeting Mexican companies with disruptive innovations in high growth sectors such as SaaS, mobile, big data, healthcare, clean tech, consumer, non-banking financing and education. Since its first close, Alta Ventures has invested in 7 companies and already successfully exited one of its portfolio investments; Rhomobile, which sold to Motorola in July 2011. Other portfolio companies include Diverza, the leading e-invoicing provider in Mexico; Energryn Corp., a renewable-energy technology developer; Juxta Labs, a social gaming development shop; Convert.com, a web conversion optimizer; MFM, a financial boutique providing short-term loans to importing/exporting companies; and Tactivos, an online collaboration platform. Alta Ventures is based in Monterrey, Mexico with satellite offices in Mexico City and Utah.
Alta Ventures Mexico was founded by serial entrepreneur Rogelio de los Santos and by Paul Ahlstrom, co-author of Nail It Then Scale It. Their Mexican-US partnership has had significant impact on Mexico’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Since 2010, Alta Ventures has organized the first Mexico Venture Capital Conference (www.mvcc.mx); the E|100 (www.e100.mx), a crowd-sourcing initiative to identify and recognize top high-potential entrepreneurs; iTuesday (www.ituesday.mx), a monthly technology meet-up; and the Kickstart Monterrey and Kickstart Guadalajara seed investment programs.
With proprietary deal flow programs and startup methodologies, Alta Ventures Mexico is accelerating innovation and has already delivered top decile returns to its investors.