Alaya Capital plans major Series B investment projects for 2019

Contxto – Venture capitalists from Alaya Capital Partners in Argentina ended the 2018 fiscal year with major assets in Latin America.

Specifically, they invested US$2.5 million in six Latin American projects – double the amount of capital than last year for the private financial group.

Since its 2012 inception in Córdoba, the sprouting investment firm has endorsed 17 companies with support from 60 investors. Funds continue to grow – beginning with US$16 million and recently reaching US$20 million.

It is difficult to get the proper amount of companies to invest all of the funds in a year but we do have the goal of growing year after year.

Luciano Crisafulli, Operations Manager Alaya Corporate Accelerator

Now, Alaya intends to put between US$3 million and US$4 million of the extra venue into various 2019 projects. If all goes as planned, between seven to 10 companies from Argentina, Chile and Mexico will receive an estimated US$400 thousand worth of assistance. Also on the agenda are Colombia and Peru.

Who is Alaya?

While some may consider Alaya Capital Partners to be an “accelerator,” they define themselves as “investment fund administrators.” Generally, they get involved during the second round of financing known as “Series B.”

Therefore, Alaya doesn’t necessarily invest in “seed funding” projects.  On the contrary, they intervene once a company has achieved a “product-market fit.” That’s to say that a product has effectively captured its target audience. In that regard, there’s less risk involved with a guaranteed positive turnover.

Is your company a good fit for Alaya?

What kind of business endeavors qualify for Alaya assistance, you may ask? First and foremost, they must be “high-impact projects” with a specific mission. These range from financial technology, health, agrotech, etc. Moreover, they prefer software over hardware.

“We look for teams of professional entrepreneurs with experience in the field they are undertaking,” said Crisafulli. “Also, we prefer that they be entrepreneurs with complementary capabilities and that the market they aim for is broad. We do not have a calling system, we have a window that’s always open. We get 50 projects per month, we evaluate 10 and from there a project can get up and running.”

Has there been much progress?

Alaya has already made a difference in Chile. So far, they have invested US$1 million with MyHotel (operating software for hotel industries), Chattigo (a web application for customer service) and Welii (a digital info management platform in the health sector).

– JA