The Latam Venture Capital Forum (LVCF) took place within the context of the Latam Tech and Business Congress Chile Digital 2015. It congregated Investors, lawyers, consultants, managers, angels, VCs, family offices and professionals from the institutional investment world. The latest technologies and trends on investing and raising funds were shared. Interesting topics for the digital era, especially nowadays where investing in the next Facebook, Google, Spotify or Uber can turn in to profits of 1000x or more, compared to traditional investments.
You can access the conferences in the Online Networking Platform: Latam Digital. To create your personal profile follow this link: http://club.chile-digital.com/membrecia-latam-digital/.
«The LVCF Chile Digital helps strength ties with Silicon Valley, accelerate the Venture Capital Industry and Investments in Fast Grow Tech Companies in Latin America. «
The LVCF featured two days of specialized conferences, with international experts that visited Latin America for the first time. Some of the keynote speakers were:
- Ron Weissman (USA), Chairman of Band of Angels, the oldest institutional angel group from Silicon Valley, with 150 members and more than USD 231M invested in companies from different industries. He did two conferences during the LVCF. In the first one he analyzed the key factors and trends that angel network management is experiencing in the world, particularly in Silicon Valley. During the last decade the number of angel networks in USA has increased in 60% while the incomes have grown in 40%. He explored the way an angel network works, investment strategies and the roles of an investor. He also analyzed the incentives for building an angel network and explained the best practices for managing one. During the 2nd day he talked specifically about Venture Capital, and its beginning in the US and Europe after the creation of the first Family Offices. 45% of the global VC are in US and Ronald analyzed specifically the conditions that makes the ecosystem in Silicon Valley propitious for innovation and economy. 2014 was a an iconic year for the VC industry, reaching the highest investment amounts since the 2000 internet bubble, however, only 20% of the VC firms generated the 80% of the total revenue. He finished his 2nd presentation with specific tips to investors, entrepreneurs and lawyers in the new trends of investment.
- Kris Brigham (USA) , private investor and entrepreuner, owner of KB Investment, gave a conference about how to execute a successful Management Buy Out (MBO) in Latin America. He highlighted the 3 L´s: Leadership, Leverage and Liquidity. Kristopher divided the MBO process in 5 steps:
- Feasibility: When you get a “Gut Feel”, have an expert check your feeling and challenge it.
- Business Plan: Develope a solid plan and define negotiation strategy with seller.
- Financing: How to raise funds and choose the right debt/equity mix.
- Negotiations: Timing, positioning and emotional intelligence to get the right price
- Due Diligence and closing documentation.
- Alfonso Yañez (Chile) Director of BanChile Citi Global Markets did a conference where he explained the Exit Strategies mechanisms used by entrepreuners and venture capital funds. The amount of exits in Latin America (58M USD in exits v/s 425M USD in investments from 2008 to 2013) reflect the incipient status of the VC industry in the region. He addressed the advantages and disadvantages of these strategies and considerations when planning or negotiating such arrangements with a partner, entrepreneur or investment fund. All this, based on case studies and practical examples of transactions in Latin America. In the future, the volume of “exits” should increase significantly converging to the levels of investments. Alfonso talked about exit strategies: IPO, M&A and sales to partners, the pros and cons of each one and the considerations you should take when negotiating with a potential partner, entrepreneur or investment fund. In Latin America the M&A outweigh the IPO´s and 70% of the M&A executed in Latin America during 2013-2014 was by international buyers.
- Juan José de La Torre (Dubai) Digital Expert, Angel Investor and entrepreneur talked about the valuation of Fast Grow Tech Companies in the new economy. The wave of digital innovation is transforming how we invest, create, source and operate new products & services to market, real innovation can transform your company and give you a substantial competitive edge. The traditional valuation methods don´t fit with this companies, during this presentation Juan José showed his own Digital Business Valuation Method based in 3 pilars: Team, Network and Traction.
- Luis Felipe Oliva (Chile), from the Investment and Financing Division of the Governmental Development Corporation (CORFO), gave a conference about the incentives that chilean government offers to promote the creation of Investment Funds. He explained the Early Stage Fund for Tech companies (Fondo de Etapas Tempranas – FET) which is a program designed to promote the creation of Investment Funds that finance Chilean companies in an early stage presenting potential of growth and innovation in sectors related to technology. FET counts with funds that go from 1M USD to 12M USD, a leverage 3:1 and timing of 12 years to use the fund.
- Matt Cole (USA) Advisor of Riverwood Capital, told us firsthand the story of the transformation of Synapsis from being the in-house IT Department of a large utility, to becoming a dynamic, Top-10 “multi-latina” IT Services business in Latin America and being sold to APAX investment groups for more than 150 M USD. Matt shared lessons learned and best practices from his experience.
- Patricio Arrau (Chile), President of Gerens Capital explained the Unique Funds Law (UFL) and the status of Venture Capital Industry in Chile. The evolution of a company and the funds chain go hand to hand: Seed Capital to fund the Beginning, Venture Capital and Private equity for growing the company and IPO or M&A to Consolidate. Key for the development of venture capital in Chile are the matching funds of Corfo and the modifications in the regulatory framework. Patricio did a detailed analysis of the UFL and talked about the challenges for entrepreneurs, administrators and investors to develop an apropiated ecosystem in the country.
- Lisandro Bril (Argentina), partner de Axventures-Pymar and co founder of Endeavor Argentina, with more than 30 years of experience in the government, civil associations, entrepreneurship and capital management, did a conference about innovation, entrepreneurship and VC in Latin America. Some important facts about entrepreneurship in LATAM are:
- Chile leads the region for its Institutions
- Brasil and Mexico leads for the size of the their market
- Argentina leads for having the best cluster of entrepreuners
- Pablo Traub (Chile), President of Imagine Lab, explained the evolution of the venture capital through analytical data. According to LAVCA in Chile during 2013 there where investments in venture capital for USD 27 MM and during 2014 that amount decreased to 22,1 MM. In Chile the majority of VC investments corresponde to Early Stage, different from more developed countries where most of VC investments go to companies in middle and late stages.
- José Antonio Berríos (Chile), Manager and founder of Broota, did a conference about Crowdfunding and how collaborative economies changed the way people invest in Tech Companies. José Antonio talked about the 5 kinds of crowdfunding:
- Reward
- Lending
- Donations
- Equity
- Royalty.
- Panel of Angel Networks: During the first day of the LVCF we had a Panel of Inverstors and Angel networks in Latin America discussing Opportunities and Challenges. The panel was led by Felipe Jara, from the Entrepreneurship department of CORFO, and the members of the panel were:
- Jamie Riggs (President of Chile Global Angels)
- Carolina Eterovic (President of Mujeres Empresarias)
- Ron Weissman (Charman of Band of Angels).
Fast Grow Tech Companies
All of these seminars where enriched by the presentation of 8 investment opportunities in fast grow tech companies, seeking for first or second investment round in the range of US$0,03- 50 millions. The companies were previously selected by the investment committee of Chile Digital from over 500 companies from 22 countries. The companies were: Admetricks, Khipu, Purplu, ReStudio, WeHaus, Babytuto, Becual and Unilink, allowing the investors to identify good investment opportunities in just one day and place.
FAST grow tech companies
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