H20 Capital Innovation is a venture capital firm founded in 2018, and has offices in Miami, Mexico City and Bogotá, Colombia.

This financial technology company has companies such as Jüsto y Tul, Mercado Favo and OnTop in its portfolio, while continuing to search for startups in Latin America aimed at segments such as marketplaces, fintech, e-commerce and software development.

With the launch of a new $50 million fund, H20 seeks to promote the strengthening of different ventures in Latin America, an effort that could reach $65 million in the following months.

This financial operation was backed by important venture investors such as Scott Shleifer, co-founder of Tiger Global Management; Sebastián Mejía, president of Rappi; Fabián Gómez, CEO of Frubana; Roger Laughlin, co-founder of Kavak, as well as the founders of iFood.

The founders of H20, Mauricio Porras from México and Daniel Lloreda from Colombia, who met in 2014 while attending Babson College in the US, were sure that Latin America could be an attractive destination for private equity risk operations.

“It was a fund that crossed borders because we recognized that Latin America was experiencing a wave and we focused on that thesis. We have entrepreneurs among our investors and advisors who help us add maximum value. We want to convince entrepreneurs, push them and provide them with tools. We really like those who were early employees of companies that defined the ecosystem,” said Lloreda, in an interview to Forbes.

The new fund is made up of investments, both seed and pre-seed capital, aimed at technology-based companies that can count on the support of the company's advisory team, which includes important names such as Javier Villamizar, operating partner of SoftBank Vision Fund; Ricardo Martínez Finger, co-founder of Jüsto; and, the aforementioned, Roger Laughlin, representing Kavak, the first Mexican unicorn.

Stevon D. Darling, recently appointed as investment director of H20 after passing through the direction of Venture Capital in Latin America, declared: “We managed to bring on board investors with strong ties to Latin America, who are well aware of the state and development that the region maintains, and who trust in the vision of H20 to promote high-potential entrepreneurs in it.”

Likewise, one of its co-founders, Mauricio Porras, assures in the publication that this active fund seeks to "help entrepreneurs in talent acquisition, go-to market planning, support with pan-regional expansion, raising capital in underlying rounds, technical support, etc,” with which they contribute to the generation of value of each startup.

Portfolio’s Benefits

Although a few years ago it was unthinkable to extend our gaze to Latin America to seek opportunities in technology markets, firms such as H20 have paved the way to find several success stories in their influence segment.

Jüsto y Tul, for example, the electronic commerce platform that supplies hardware stores, recently completed a Series B investment round for $181 million, which allowed it to increase its value 200 times.

For its part, FAVO, a Brazilian social commerce platform, advanced a Series A round for $26,5 million, increasing its value 10 times.

Likewise, OnTop, a platform that speeds up the hiring of talent around the world, obtained $20 million in a Series A round and increased its value 20 times.

It is important to note that, according to the Financial Times, startups from Latin America attracted $15,3 billion in 2021, which is more than three times the record reached in 2019 of $4,9 billion.