Brazilian early stage venture capital Monashees is planning to raise $250 million to boost startup investments in Latin America, Reuters reported.
Previously, Monashees had invested in 99, a transportation network company rival to Uber. That said, the company is also investing in the delivery startups Rappi and Loggi, in addition to other companies such as Neon and Grow.
The venture capital firm was founded in 2005 by Eric Acher and Fabio Igel. It is one of the largest venture capital firms in Latin America with more than $430 million in capital under management.
“The recent billion-dollar acquisition of 99 by DiDi is not only a milestone for the local ecosystem, but validation of this sentiment and suggests that there’s no liquidity hurdle for great companies in Latin America,” Stuart Mason, chief investment officer at the University of Minnesota said.
Last year, Monshees announced that it closed $150 million for its eighth investment fund. Mason said, “Monashees brings a truly unique set of skills to the table, with a disciplined investment strategy, as well as the unmatched local expertise and knowledge that leads the team to identify and invest in the region’s best founders.”
Investments in startups in Latin America is booming. For example, SoftBank had invested $100 million in Loggi and a provider of payments technology that had raised $1.1 billion in its initial public offering on the Nasdaq. The payments provider had an initial market capitalisation of $6.6 billion. According to a media report, companies in Monashees portfolio have reportedly raised up to $2 billion from global investors after raising funds from the Brazilian venture capital firm.