Narayan AmmachchiCosta Rican venture capital firm Carao Ventures has raised US$35 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), saying its mission is to foster innovative startups in the Andean region.
With the new cash on hand, Carao will soon go hunting for prospective young enterprises in countries, including Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador.
“We will amplify our ability to channel capital and other valuable resources to a region that has outstanding startup potential but that has been historically neglected by venture capital,” said Allan Boruchowicz, co-founder of Carao.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) also contributed to the fund, according to Carao’s press release.
“Our mission is to provide the most talented and committed entrepreneurs in the small and medium markets in Latin America, access to the necessary resources and opportunities to create valuable companies from and for the region,” Boruchowicz added.
Boruchowicz had just left his job at Mesoamérica Investments when he teamed up with his colleague Adrián García to launch Carao in 2012.
It made headlines in 2018 when it picked up a majority stake in a Costa Rican startup GoPato, a mobile app that helps users to find out their lost keys as well as their favorite food and supermarkets nearby.
Among the start-ups, its investments include cloud software developers Slidebean and Junar. Other start-ups it sunk money into are Leaf, AerialRobotics, GoPass, Klap, Quenti Technologies, and AI firm Singularities.
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