Photo: Kamay Ventures
Since the beginning of its investments, the multicorporate fund Kamay Ventures, backed by Coca-Cola Latin America, Grupo Arcor, and Grupo Bimbo, has allocated resources to startups in various countries across Latin America. Now, the fund is expanding its investments in Brazil, anticipating a positive outlook in the region’s near future.
Gabriela Ruggeri, partner at Kamay Ventures, noted that inflated valuations led the fund to postpone its investments in Brazil. According to Ruggeri, one of the three upcoming assets the fund will announce will be in the Amazonian country.
“The excitement has led many to focus on the region, exploring opportunities and assessing market size. We believe 2024 will be a favorable year to consolidate the Latin American ecosystem. We focused on the opportunities we found because Brazil was too costly, and we didn’t like that. We observed that other markets hosted companies with the potential to expand internationally, with interesting technological value and high-quality entrepreneurs. Still, we never stopped considering Brazil,” she stated in an exclusive interview with PEGN magazine.
Of the 12 startups in Kamay Ventures’ portfolio, four also operate in Brazil, in addition to their home countries, such as the Argentine Auravant and the Colombian Ruedata. The fund is in the capital investment phase for the next two years, to invest in another 15 to 20 companies.
According to Ruggeri, there is a desire for significant Brazilian participation in the portfolio, whether from national startups or those operating in the country, reaching between 35% and 40% of the first fund. Currently, the fund is monitoring 12 companies selected at the Kamay Code event, held in August in São Paulo, as they work on their proof of concepts, showing potential for future investments.
Kamay Ventures emerged from the collaboration between two major corporations, Coca-Cola and Arcor, to seek innovation in solutions contributing to the digitalization of different stages of production processes.
“We invest across the entire value chain of the food and beverage sector, fast-moving consumer goods: agtechs, biotechs, industry 4.0, logistics, distribution, fintechs. We focus on B2B that will transform the supply chain and the traditional channel, benefiting small businesses,” explained Gabriela Ruggeri.
Investments are made early, with checks valued at around USD $500,000. Although the total amount of the first fund was not disclosed, Ruggeri assures that most has already been raised, and the final closure will occur in March 2024. Earlier this month, Kamay Ventures announced the entry of Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican bakery company, as a new investor.
When asked about the possibility of other conglomerates joining the fund, Ruggeri responded:
“Several companies participate in this value chain of distributing goods and creating food and beverages. Most actors face the same workforce management problems, access to retail credit, and a need for digitization among agricultural producers. The fact that several companies operate in the same fund adds interesting additional value.”
