500 Startups Latam Launches Call For Its 10th Batch, To Invest and Mentor Their Next Founder Generation

Contxto – The well-known Venture Capital fund, 500 Startups, launched a call for the next batch of Latin American startups to be accelerated.

The selected companies not only will receive US $60,000 in investment, but also the opportunity to be mentored and advised by the team of 500 Startups and their in-house entrepreneurs.

Historically, the companies that have gone through our program, in just these 16 weeks manage to grow their sales 3 or 4 times.

René Lomelí, Operations Director Latam

The founders will have to fly to Mexico City and stay there for 4-months, in order to receive this training, which includes subjects such as legal framework, product development, marketing and sales, corporate culture and fundraising.

Weekly meetings and 500 Strong – an entire founder community – is what awaits these hardworking entrepreneurs.

The Terms

Straight forward. The fund invest USD $60k for 10% of the business through a convertible vehicle, called KISS. No, it is not a joke.

Although founders are free to use the funds as they please, the program has a cost of US $12.5k, therefore in net terms, they have USD $47.5k free to deploy.

There are only three requisites:

1. Being constituted as a Mexican SAPI or US Delaware C corp.
2. Having a vesting scheme in place.
3. Founders must give in all intellectual property rights to the company.

If you’re not constituted yet, you can still apply and get that process done later on.

Important Dates To Be Aware Of

The application window opened Monday the 7th and closes the 3th of February.

Interviews with potential candidates start the 4th of February, and last one month. Subsequently, the investment decisions are made the 11th of March.

The batch officially starts on April and concludes as a Demo Day on July.

The renowned seed fund has invested in over 150 companies from all over Latin America, including Clip, Conekta, Grin, Platzi, Gurú de Viaje, Boletia and Konfío.

You can learn more and apply to the program here.

Good luck to all candidates out there!

– VC