LAVCA Data provides insight into the fundraising, investment, and exit activity among private equity and venture capital funds investing in the Latin American region. Since 2008, LAVCA has conducted the Fund Manager Survey on PE/VC activity in Latin America[1]. Trend data is modeled from LAVCA surveys.
Statistics on fundraising, investments, and exits are obtained from the LAVCA Annual Fund Manager Survey, including data from over 250 fund management firms active in Latin America and the Caribbean.
LAVCA collects most of the information directly from fund managers and amounts have been confirmed whenever possible through information provided by the fund managers themselves. On average more than, 95% of transactions are confirmed with primary sources and more than 95% of the deals provide financial details of the transactions (or a range of the investment size). This is a comprehensive overview of the Latin America PE/VC activity making the participation of LAVCA members and non-LAVCA members key[2].
Reported fundraising totals reflect only official closes (first, second, and/or final) confirmed by the fund managers or, if not obtained directly, reported in trusted public sources. Capital commitments accruing prior to or between official closes are not included. Captive funds or funds investing directly from its own internal sources (for instance, the balance sheet) are not included in LAVCA Data.
The geographic focus is estimated based on fund manager’s responses to the survey on the geographic mandate of the funds they raised. In the case of a regional or multi-country fund, the manager’s plan to allocate capital is not an indication of a commitment to a country, and therefore the funds will remain as “Regional”. Overall, “Regional” also includes funds with an investment strategy that targets more than a single country. Fundraising numbers are not based on where the fund manager’s headquarters are located.
Unless stated otherwise, the approach taken for investments and divestments is represented by location of the portfolio company. For the purposes of LAVCA Data, this means investments in Latin American companies or divestments from Latin American companies, regardless of the location of the private equity or venture capital firm. Therefore, the market statistics include investments in and divestments from Latin American portfolio companies, made by both Latin American and foreign investors.
LAVCA defines infrastructure deals as capital invested directly in tangible, physical assets, whether existing (brownfield) or development-phase (greenfield) that are expected to exhibit stable predictable cash flows over a long term investment horizon. Unlisted infrastructure funds managed by private equity firms and making private equity-style investments are included in the analysis. Project financing transactions in infrastructure-related industries are not included.
Investment totals reflect total equity amounts for transactions in which financial details have been reported. In the case of co-investments, total amounts will reflect equity capital invested by private equity and venture capital funds only, and will exclude – whenever it is possible – capital from other non PE investors or captive funds. Divestments are measured by proceeds from the exit and will count – whenever it is possible – capital exited by private equity and venture capital investors only.
The total number of investment transactions includes both new and follow-on investments and is determined by the moment in time that the investment was initiated and not the number of funds contributing capital. Thus, if for example an independent private equity or venture capital firm manages three separate funds and invests capital from each fund into a portfolio company, or three separate fund managers participate in a round of investment, this is counted only as one transaction. In a different case, if one private equity or venture capital firm invests in a portfolio company at two different times during the year, these investments are counted as two separate transactions.
Private equity and venture capital investments and divestments include the following stages:
- Seed/Incubator: Startup capital for companies to incubate an idea into a company or product.
- Early Stage: Startup capital for companies.
- Expansion Stage: Capital for companies that have reached a sustainable level of development and may be shipping products.
- Growth Financing: Non-control equity investment in an existing company to finance growth strategy.
- Distressed/Turnaround: Investment in companies that are in financial distress.
- Mezzanine Debt: Subordinated debt.
- Buyout: Control investment in a company.
- PIPE: Private investment in publicly traded companies.
[1] Latin America contains countries in North, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean region (excluding Puerto Rico).
[2] Statistics presented in this report are subject to revision as more information becomes available.