London-based global private equity platform Lightrock, which backs purpose-driven entrepreneurs tackling the most pressing issues in the world, has closed a new $330 million growth equity fund for Latin America.
Focuses on Latin American region
For this fund, Lightrock’s anchor capital provider is LGT Group, one of Europe’s leading financial institutions with $295 billion in assets under management. In addition to this, the latest fund also sees the participation from local investors, including Bradesco’s and XP Inc.’s fund of funds, BNDES, and a selection of local family offices. The fund will offer its LPs co-investment opportunities, increasing total deployment to around $400 million.
The focus of this new fund will be on the purpose-driven companies but it will have a greater focus on the Latin American region. The fund will increase its investment in the region in the coming years. Notably, the firm made its first investment in Latin America in 2017.
Pål Erik Sjåtil, CEO and Global Managing Partner, said “Lightrock backs companies that have business models powered by innovative technologies, that generate a positive impact on people’s lives, the environment or private sector productivity, and that are ready to scale. We see a lot of companies that meet these criteria in Latin America, and I’m delighted that Lightrock will be able to strengthen its investment in the region with this new dedicated fund.”
Marcos Wilson Pereira, Managing Partner and Head of Latin America at Lightrock commented “Lightrock’s investment in the Latin American market has developed very strongly; we have already deployed more than $400 million across 11 companies, and over the next two years we expect Lightrock’s total exposure in the region to exceed $1 billion. We will continue to back innovative and ready-to-scale businesses that contribute positively to society and the environment, thereby developing real solutions to structural problems.
Lightrock’s portfolio!
Lightrock is organised as a partnership led by the Global Managing Partner and CEO Pål Erik Sjåtil, with its Board of Directors chaired by Prince Max von Liechtenstein, who initiated LGT’s impact investing activities in 2009.
Currently, the private equity platform has over $3 billion in assets under advice invested in 14 countries across Europe, the USA, Latin America, Asia and Africa. Lightrock’s team is comprised of more than 80 private equity professionals around the world, with teams located in Zurich (Switzerland), Bangalore (India), São Paulo (Brazil) and Nairobi (Kenya).
Since its debut, Lightrock has invested in over 80 companies in more than 14 countries globally. These companies pursue scalable and tech-driven business models around the key impact themes of people, planet, and productivity/tech for good. The recent investments of Lightrock are Dock and CredAvenue among others.
Lightrock has already deployed more than $400 million in companies such as Frete.com, Creditas, Dr. Consulta, Konfio, Buser, General Water, across four countries in sectors such as healthcare, education, financial services and transportation. Most recently, Lightrock’s investments across the region have included the Colombian unicorn Tul, the e-commerce platform that sells construction materials to small-sized retailers, and the Chilean insurtech Betterfly.
Lightrock’s investment thesis covers three verticals such as People (focusing on companies that have impact solutions for healthcare and education), Planet (sustainability and efficient use of natural resources) and Productivity (transforming finance and acceleration of business efficiency through technological innovation).
