LAVCA VC
  • News Feed
  • VC Data
  • Directories
  • Features
  • Tech Growth Coalition
  • LAVCA Gender Diversity
  • Engage
    • VC Council
    • VC Members
  • LAVCA
  • Member Login
  • Member Access

LAVCA VC

  • News Feed
  • VC Data
  • Directories
  • Features
  • Tech Growth Coalition
  • LAVCA Gender Diversity
  • Engage
    • VC Council
    • VC Members
  • LAVCA

Positive Ventures Raises US$4.8m Towards US$12m Fund

January 16, 2020

Brazilian VC Positive Ventures raised US$4.8m towards a US$12m target. Investments from the new fund include Labi and Letrus. 

(CrunchBase) Positive Ventures, a Sao Paulo-based venture firm operating in stealth mode since 2016, has secured $4.8 million of a targeted $12 million fund.

Its self-described mission is to “invest in startups where every dollar of revenue is also delivering environmental or social impact.”

I spoke with co-founder and co-CEO Fabio Kestenbaum who emphasized the importance of such an investment strategy in a country like Brazil that has had its share of corruption over the years. (Kestenbaum co-founded the firm with Andrea Oliveira and Bruna Constantino.)

“In Brazil, you have the perfect storm for impact investing,” he said. “For example, the Amazon [rainforest] is at risk and there’s an urgent need to address that problem. The new generation here especially recognizes that money can have a massive transformative power for good, and that when you decide to consume or invest in something it is also a political decision.”

Positive Ventures prides itself on being guided by the United Nations as part of its Global Compact initiative. It also has a top tier B Impact Score, meaning as a B Corp. that makes impact part of its core strategy, it’s doing pretty darn good.

As part of its effort to grow, Positive Ventures has tapped Murilo Johas Menezes to lead its investment team and head up a new office in Palo Alto, California. Menezes was the chief impact officer at Brazil’s Maraé Investimentos, a multi-billion impact-oriented single-family office.

Investments
So far, Positive Ventures has backed two companies from its new fund: Labi Exames and Letrus. (It previously backed two other startups: OccamzRazor and New Hope Ecotech.)

Marcelo Noll Barboza co-founded Labi Exames with the mission of providing affordable and tech-oriented health exams for an estimated 160 million Brazilians who do not have access to proper healthcare. Barboza is a Harvard Business School alum and former CEO of DASA, Latin America’s largest healthcare group. In less than a year, Labi Exames has launched 12 clinics and delivered over 100,000 exams. Positive Ventures co-invested with e.Bricks, a serial and reputable VC operating in Brazil.

Linguistics professor Luis Junqueira, and Thiago Rached, a former partner at Brazilian VC firm Monashees, co-founded Letrus with the mission of using artificial intelligence to tackle the illiteracy epidemic in Latin America. Its AI platform uses gamification to engage students and help them become fully literate. It’s also supported by J-Pal, co-founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professors Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, who just jointly won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

“If you want to bring private capital to the game to help address social and environmental challenges, we have to reward this capital,” Kestenbaum said. “As such, we recognize that we have to invest in good businesses that can provide financial returns as well.”

Impact investing is a topic I hold close to my heart and have previously reported on here and here. Also, earlier this week our own Natasha Mascarenhas covered Obvious Ventures’ new fund.

Positive Ventures Raises US$4.8m Towards US$12m Fund was last modified: January 24th, 2020 by Editor
Andrea OliveiraBruna ConstantinoCaliforniaFabio KestenbaumLabi ExamesLetrusMurilo Johas MenezesPositive VenturesUnited Nations
0
Facebook Twitter Google +

Categories

  • Deals
  • Exits
  • Regulatory
  • M&A
  • New Funds & Firms
  • Partnerships

Sign up for LAVCA’s bi-weekly Latin American Private Capital Update and the LatAm Venture Bulletin, produced specifically for venture investors, entrepreneurs, and technology startups in the early stage ecosystem.






Which LAVCA Newsletter would you like to receive?

Tweets

  • Check out this week's top #startup deals and news on emerging tech in #LatAm from LAVCA's #LatAmVentureBulletin:… https://t.co/NOvUvkCflB

    27-Jan-2023

    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • #VC investment in #LatAm in 2022 reached USD7.5b, according to preliminary LAVCA data. Stay tuned for LAVCA’s yea… https://t.co/kAqAuL8Iq5

    23-Jan-2023

    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • January 20 is the last chance to register for "ESG in Venture and Tech Investing," the latest training in the LAVCA… https://t.co/UrbfcPgM7l

    19-Jan-2023

    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • Submissions for the 2023 LAVCA ESG Deal Awards are closing on January 20, 2023. LAVCA's ninth annual showcase will… https://t.co/AIu4FVKxT6

    11-Jan-2023

    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • Thank you for your continued support and commitment to grow private capital investment in Latin America. We look fo… https://t.co/AHA1txwyJZ

    30-Dec-2022

    Reply Retweet Favorite

Keep in touch

Twitter Linkedin Youtube

About LAVCA

 

LAVCA is the Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America, a not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to supporting the growth of private capital in Latin America and the Caribbean through research, education, networking and advocacy.

LAVCA Office

    New York City:
    589 8th Ave, 18th Floor
    New York, NY 10018

Explore LAVCA.org

  • About LAVCA
  • Board, Team, & Advisors
  • Media
  • Contact Us
  • Membership Benefits
  • Members Only Access
  • Education and Programs
  • Research
  • Policy
  • LAVCA VC
  • Contact Us

@2020 - LAVCA. All Rights Reserved.


Back To Top