All posts in Case Studies

  • January 17, 2011

    Brazil is Hot, Hot, Hot!

    Brazil HotBrazilian startup and investment activity just continues to heat up.  It’s not enough that, at the end of last year, Tiger Management and Accel partners invested US $30M in Vostu and Insight Venture Partners invested an undisclosed amount in Mentez, two Brazilian social gaming companies.  Now, comes news that none other than premier VC firm, Benchmark Capital, just invested in Brazilian social buying company Peixe Urbano.  Conclusion: Brazil is hot, hot, hot!

    It was only six months ago that I wrote that article for VentureBeat and the NYTimes.com about the fact that US web companies are starting to look at Latin America for strategic acquisitions.  Now, VC’s are looking at countries such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina, but Brazil is, by far, the big blip on their radar screens.

    It’s all part of a global trend whereby new players are disrupting established companies in industry after industry by incorporating the ever present web (mobile and otherwise) into their unique value proposition.  These new players enter markets with more competitive business models and start to take share away from traditional companies in industries such as retail, commerce, media, financial services, entertainment and more.

    There are a number of reasons why Brazil is in the lead including the size of the country, the investments in infrastructure and the growing importance of that economy on the world stage.  Nevertheless, another reason is the Brazilians themselves (professionalism, creativity, world view, and ability to execute) and, here, other countries in Latin America can learn a thing or two (although, I think Chileans and Argentineans are keeping step nicely).

    4 Comments / Case Studies, English /

  • January 16, 2011

    Silicon Valley continues it’s Latin America Discovery

    WelcuThis Tuesday it was announced that Google CEO, Eric Schmidt’s, investment vehicle, Tomorrow Ventures, invested in a Chilean web event management company called Welcu. The company has already gartnered an impressive list of corporate clients from Coca-cola to BBDO.  The fact that Schmidt’s investment company chose a company in Latin America for it’s 22nd investment attests to the fact that this region should be on the radar screen of more and more investors.

    It’s important to note that Welcu is not simply a clone of established companies such as Eventbrite and others, but provides some innovation by more thoroughly integrating a social layer throughout its event management platform. The company has an impressive list of previous investors including Oskar Hjertonsson who recently sold his company (along with his cofounders) to Groupon.

    4 Comments / Case Studies, English /

  • March 5, 2010

    The Word is Getting Out – Latin America is Full of Digital Innovators

    Compra3I’ve been so busy contributing to other publications that I’ve been falling behind in posting to my own blog.  Lately, I’ve been writing articles about companies such as Vivareal in Colombia and Compra3 in Brazil each with excellent prospects for the future. I’ve been psyched to see these articles published in the NYTimes and in Venturebeat.  There is such a tremendous opportunity in this region for setting up dev centers, targeting the region for products and services or both.

    I just got back from a night of Salsa and Sushi with the Mrs. and, after waking up at 2:30am this morning should be hitting the sack.  Nevertheless, as if the day hasn’t been good enough, I just read Chris Brogan’s post on Colombia.  By now, I’m used to seeing fellow “Gringos” wowed by the life down here, but it’s so great to see someone who appreciates that aspect, but, more importantly, objectively, sees the tremendous potential down here.

    That was just the cap to a truly amazing day where, aside from happy family times, I had some great meetings with top executives at two major multinationals down here, a financial services company and a friend who works at Twitter that I finally met in person (she’s down here).  Aside from all of this, Compra3 (amazing founders) had their production launch of their social commerce site, which I was able to write about to get the word out.

    I should really back all of this up with more numbers and statistics, but I’m too tired tonight.  I’ll leave that for another post.

    Conclusion:  there’s no doubt in my mind that Latin America is going through a transformation and that, within the next 5 years, the number of US VC/angel backed digital innovators with either dev centers or target market (or both) down here will explode.

    No Comments / Case Studies, English /

  • October 26, 2009

    Sequoia Backs iPhone Game Developer Unity With $5.5 Million

    A few days ago, I wrote a post about entrepreneur Ricardo Quesada who is the technical lead of the open source iPhone game development platform called Cocos2d. Now comes the news that Sequoia and some Angels have invested in Unity who “plays” in the same space. Interestingly, Unity reports less customers (325) than Cocos2d.

    Sequoia and the Angels have most certainly laid out some funds because they see excellent growth in this space.  Aside from this, I’m sure they were favorably impressed with Unity’s offering and its management team.  Ricardo is hard at work at polishing his product, which is on it’s 0.82 release.  Nevertheless, as soon as he finishes this phase, it would be great if he could build a team (I’m sure he can build a capable one) and get one or more backers to fulfill the potential of Cocos2d. Go Ricardo Go!

    No Comments / Case Studies, English /
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