The goalkeeper and captain of the Mexican National Soccer Team, Memo Ochoa, has become the main partner of Altered Ventures, an investment fund specializing in gaming, esports and VR/AR, founded by Mexican investor Mario Valle Reyes.
This partnership, in which Jorge Berlanga, the soccer player’s manager, also participates, is promoting the investment of US$1 million for NFTs and gaming ventures, talent, and projects based exclusively in Latin America.
Why invest in the Latin American gaming industry?
Valle Reyes told Contxto that before Memo Ochoa and Jorge Berlanga became partners, Altered Ventures had already financed projects in emerging markets. However, they had never invested heavily in Latin America.
In fact, Valle Reyes was motivated with the new investment exclusively for the region, he said that Latin America has potential, and not only around the consumption of video games, also because of the talent of developers.
He assured that although it represents a market of $6 billion, it has been growing at double digits, 11% only in the region. It is worth mentioning that the global gaming industry has grown by 9% annually, which represents around $180 billion, according to a report by Newzoo.
The Mexican investor said that a revolution is coming in the industry and that both Ochoa and Berlanga are the perfect long-term companions. He stated that both have a great sensitivity for digital business.
Valle Reyes emphasized that Ochoa is aware of technological trends. The soccer player “is very clear about where he is going at the business level, not only in terms of assets but also strategically”.
Proof of this is his recent investment in Kavak, his Twitch channel, and now his investment with Altered Ventures.
For Valle Reyes, Latin America is a region that has everything to see explosive growth in the gaming industry: a population of 650 million, 40% of which have Internet access. He pointed out that what the region needs are investors.
Altered Ventures, a investment fund with an edge
The fund, based in Silicon Valley, is a hybrid fund that invests in public and private markets. Valle Reyes told Contxto that “Altered Ventures was born as a different Venture Capital fund because it decided not to invest in companies, but to finance projects”.
He said that the fund emerged from the insight of the “enormous potential that the video game industry [in emerging markets] presented in the future for small developers”. Since then, Altered Ventures has financed multiple projects in the Valley. Now, it is Latin America’s turn.
Following the new investment, Altered Ventures is calling out to regional gaming developer talent that understands the opportunity presented by the convergence between blockchain, NFTs, and gaming. The fund is also seeking out esports talent, streamers, and VR and AR video game developers to meet them.
In the long term, Valle Reyes said, what follows is to generate a substantive and consistent return to investors to continue supporting emerging market talent, both in Latin America and around the world.
