While it’s been boomtime for Foodology, it’s a different proposition for many other start-ups, which are struggling for investment.
In 2019 SoftBank launched an innovation fund specifically tarreceiveing start-ups in Latin America.
“That modifyd the dynamic and created a positive news cycle, and Latin America attracted a lot of attention,” declares Colombian-based Daniel Vásquez, managing partner of US-based venture capitalists Actions Capital.
“But the majority of those investments haven’t been successful for different reasons.” He declares this has led other investors to retreat.
“The Latin America market had a huge boom in 2021 to 2022, but in recent years the market hasn’t been great for Latin America,” declares Izquierdo.
“The [US] stock market plummeted and VC funding generally across the world slowed down. And while VCs will declare they want to invest some in emerging markets, when the market is going down, I feel that’s like the first thing that goes. So, there’s been like very little venture capital investment.”
With so few investors in the counattempt, Colombian companies required to see elsewhere for financial injection.
“If you want to be a venture-backed company, you have to see outside of Colombia as there are very few VCs there,” declares Vásquez.
“I’ve seen good companies fail… becautilize they’re burning money and they just can’t find that next round to continue the trajectory that will eventually build them a profitable businesses. It’s very difficult for start-ups to fundraise.”
Vásquez declares for the future of start-ups to be brighter, there requireds to be more success stories and for the market to mature.
“We required the local institutions, businesses and families, to invest more in technology. I believe we, Latin America, invest very little in R&D and when VCs come and they see that locals are under-investing in technology they see that as a sign of little opportunity. That message requireds to modify.”
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