VC Firm’s New $280M Fund Shows Growing Investor Interest in Latin America

Monashees, Brazil’s biggest venture capital firm, has raised a new $280 million fund from ultra-wealthy individuals in Latin America as well as U.S. and Asian institutional investors, according to people familiar with the matter. It is one of the biggest VC funds ever to be raised in Latin America, where local startups are attracting some of the world’s most influential tech investors such as SoftBank, despite the region’s economic uncertainties.

Monashees, whose latest fund comes a year after it raised a $150 million fund, was an early investor in some of the region’s biggest tech companies including Rappi and Brazilian ride-hailing app 99, which was acquired by China’s Didi Chuxing last year. SoftBank, meanwhile, launched a $5 billion tech investment fund for Latin America in March. It has already made outsized deals such as its $1 billion investment in Colombian delivery startup Rappi in April, the biggest-ever fundraising for a Latin American tech company. SoftBank also has put money into Monashees’ VC rivals in the region.