Susana García Robles has been working to help create the venture capital industry in Latin America since the 90s, when she launched an ambitious flagship program in Brazil to jumpstart the Latin American ecosystem. Since then, she has been an LP to dozens of funds across the region in her role as Chief Investment Officer for IDB Lab at the Interamerican Development Bank, a Washington DC based multilateral development bank focused on Latin America and the Carribbean.
In addition, Susana founded WeXchange, a platform run to empower Latin American and Caribbean female entrepreneurs and connect them to mentors and investors around the world.
In this episode, I sat down with Susana to talk about her first experience with venture capital in the region, from working in Brazil to replicating similar programs across Latin America. She offers advice to potential LPs on what to look for in successful fund managers and founders. We also cover why and how she founded WeXchange and the importance of women entrepreneurs for Latin America’s growth. Check out this episode of Crossing Borders to hear more of Susana’s extensive experience investing in the region.
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Global investments in education technology, commonly known as edtech, will reach $252 billion by 2020. In fact, the global e-learning market is growing over 14% annually, and this growth rate is likely to continue.
In Latin America, government focus on education increased significantly over the last two decades. As a result, Latin America is now the fourth largest edtech market in the world – behind North America, Western Europe, and Asia in terms of revenue – with expectations for the e-learning market to generate revenues of over $3 billion by 2023.
According to UNESCO, more than 12 million adults in 20 Latin American countries are participating in some form of online education. This is not just online courses; millions of people are now accessing written materials, webinars, podcasts, collaborative software, and more.
What’s driving edtech opportunities in Latin America?
The short answer is surging levels of mobile and Internet access.
Latin America is a world leader in mobile adoption, with more than 415 million out of approximately 690 million people connected to a mobile network. Approximately 60% of all mobile connections in Latin America are smartphones and there are predictions that by 2020, 63% of Latin America’s population will have access to the mobile Internet. This rapid growth is translating into endless opportunities for the edtech sector, even in the most rural and remote areas.
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1.4 million cars joined the roads in Latin America in the first quarter of 2018. In a region that struggles with automobile safety, the increase of motor vehicles on the road raises challenges for policymakers, auto manufacturers, and citizens. Over 115,000 people die every year from car accidents in Latin America. In 2000, 26.2 people per 100,000 died in car accidents and that number is expected to rise to 31 car-related deaths for every 100,000 people by 2020. In the US, the rate of accident deaths hovers around 11.4 per 100,000 people.
Managing Latin America’s growing automobile fleet is one of the most significant challenges that startups and governments will need to tackle as cities swell. Latin America is home to many auto producers, so manufacturers will also need to pay attention to new technology to stay competitive.
Opportunities in autotech in Latin America
Worldwide, startups and giant tech companies are tackling the conventional auto industry with solutions that include self-driving vehicles, electric cars, pay-per-mile insurance, and car-shares. Latin America is experiencing a wave of autotech startup launches, including a few that raised notable international investment rounds.
Much of this innovation remains concentrated in Latin America’s two largest markets: Brazil and Mexico. This disparity makes sense as 70% of vehicles on the road in Latin America are in these two countries. In Brazil, there is approximately one car per four inhabitants, while in Mexico, the ratio is one in three. Argentina, Colombia, and Chile trail far behind in quantity of vehicles but maintain similar ratios.
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Crossing Borders: A Venture Capitalist’s Guide to Doing Business in Latin America is your jumping off point that will give you what you need to know to get started if you’re seriously thinking about living, working or doing business in Latin America.It is an insiders look at each country in the region based not only on Nathan Lustig’s own experiences, but also directly from the mouths of entrepreneurs, investors and government officials who have spent decades living and working in their countries and have appeared on Lustig’s Crossing Borders Podcast.Crossing Borders: A Venture Capitalist’s Guide to Doing Business in Latin America chronicles Lustig’s experience living, working and doing business across Latin America since he moved to the region in 2010 as part of the pilot round of Start-Up Chile. Since 2014, Magma Partners, the venture capital fund that he cofounded has invested into 50 startups across the region. Magma has offices in Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, USA and China.Crossing Borders has in depth chapters on all of the countries in the region, including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and many more. It features entrepreneurs like Daniel Undurraga CEO Cornershop, Marco DeMello CEO Psafe, Fabricio Bloisi CEO Movile, Diego Caicedo CEO Omnibnk, Maria Paz Gillet CEO Jooycar, Rocio Fonseca Director Start-Up Chile, Alba Rodriguez CEO Gricha, Santiago Zavala Partner 500 Startups, Alejandro Freund CEO YaEsta, Federico Vega CEO CargoX, Jie Hao Magma China, David Lloyd CEO Intern Group, Devin Baptiste Sean Park, Kevin Valdez founders GroupRaise, Brian Requarth CEO Vivareal, Bismarck Lepe CEO Wizeline, Jack Fischl, Kyle Wiggins founders Keteka and many more.
