New York Times writer Vinod Sreeharsha reported last week that, “With a change of administration in the United States ushering in uncertainty, this may be an unusual time for an American investment firm to bet on emerging markets.
“Yet San Francisco-based Rise Capital, founded by Nazar Yasin, a former director at Tiger Global Management, sees some of the next big internet companies coming from Latin America, in particular Brazil and Mexico.
“After investing in multiple countries in the region in recent years, Rise, for the first time, has backed an internet start-up in Colombia.”
The Times article pointed out that, “Mr. Yasin said Rise continued to see promising opportunities in the region and expected to make more investments this year despite some of its countries’ ailing economies and uncertainty stemming from President Trump’s policies.”
“The region’s start-up scene has also been through ups and downs over the last several years, but the entrepreneurship wave continues,” the article said.
Last week’s article stated that, “[Peter Ostroske, a co-founder of OFI and its chief executive] said OFI, which was previously backed by another Silicon Valley early-stage investment firm called 500 Startups, planned on using the new capital to expand, and not only in Colombia.
“‘We have a very robust operation in Colombia, but it needs to be developed in Mexico,’ he said. He expects that over the next 12 months, ‘my focus will be on developing the Mexico City office,’ he added.
“That opportunity is a big reason that Rise invested, Mr. Yasin said. ‘Brazil and Mexico are two of the largest internet markets in the world right now, and there’s still little venture capital there,’ he added.”