IDB Lab and DILA’s newest regional fund will connect previously disparate corners of the ecosystem

Contxto – Venture capital (VC) fund, DILA Capital, has announced that it is teaming up with IDB Lab in order to launch DILA IV, a pan-Latam fund looking to develop and integrate the regional startup and VC ecosystem.

IDB Lab is the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Bank of Development Group, a Washington-based development finance institution focused on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, DILA Capital is IDB Lab’s person on the inside. The expert Mexican VC will be deploying the still undisclosed amount of capital which is to benefit between 21 and 25 companies. 

They grow up so fast, DILA turns to IV

In many ways, this fund is not all too different from its predecessor. Indeed, DILA III was created all the way back in 2018 when it pledged to invest MX$800 million (approximately US$40 million back then) into exactly the same sort of startups that DILA IV is hoping to put money into.

These include companies in late-stage seed rounds, as well as Series A and B stages in the following sectors:

  • Financial services, 
  • health, education, 
  • logistics/mobility, and 
  • solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

But, even if the sectors and stages look similar, you can be sure that the energies of each will be heavily focused on current very different issues. In fact, IDB expects the fund to foment relevant innovations for post-Covid19 economic recovery and mitigation.

DILA IV’s explicit regional focus on Latin America

What seems to have leveled up is the geographical focus, which explains the IDB’s involvement in this venture. In a brief press release IDB Lab went into detail about what the fund would be achieving:

DILA Capital will be tapping into the startup ecosystems in Mexico and Latin America, including less developed VC markets, such as Central America, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Through this investment, IDB Lab aims to promote greater regional integration of VC and startup ecosystems across Latin America.

IDB Labs

Regional integration has been in the IDB’s purview since its inception over 70 years ago. But, what’s particularly interesting about this latest initiative is the way in which it is tapping into a relatively new financial ecosystem that has been growing up in the region rather more recently; the local venture capital scene.

The hope is that DILA Capital’s experience in Mexico’s rather more established investment environment will be able to translate into less developed VC ecosystems.

The transfer of knowledge and best practices alongside the greater access to finance for entrepreneurs in these latter ecosystems will not only boost local startups, it will lead to greater regional integration.  

Related articles: Tech and startups from Mexico!

-AG

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