According to a report by the Latin American Venture Capital Association (LAVCA), Colombia ranks fourth in terms of venture capital development in the region. Improvements in the regulatory framework and the ease of access to investors are the basis, among other reasons, for the improvement of the private equity/entrepreneurship environment in Colombia.
Venture capital has 2,040MM$ available to invest
To date, there are 31 closed funds in Colombia with USD 3,395 million in committed resources, of which USD 3,395 million have been invested.
USD 1,355 million, with USD 2,040 million still available for investment. There are a further 15 such fund initiatives in the pipeline.
to raise capital contributions of USD 803 million (See Graph No. 1).
"Of the new funds being set up, three of them seem to me to be very significant. Tribeca aims to raise half of the outstanding capital (400MM of the total 803). Also relevant is the fund specialising in emerging markets and SMEs, Aureos II, which has a target of 150 MM$. From the Spanish perspective, the fund that Telfónica's fund manager (Amerigo) is co-managing with Axon is of note. Axon is a good example of internationalisation for the private equity market. A few years ago, it raised a technology fund for Indian companies wanting to enter Europe. Then, too, they established a partnership with a fund manager located in India," says Diego Gutierrez, SME corporate finance specialist at Axon. ABRA INVEST.
Colombia an internationalisation opportunity for Spanish companies in traditional markets
The existence of private equity / venture capital funds is relatively recent in the country, but they have shown an evolution in the last few years.
signi cantly in a very short time. The capital committed in these funds has shown a compound annual growth of 71% from 2005 to date and has been growing at a rate of
will emerge in the future as a very important financing alternative for Colombian entrepreneurs.
29% of the resources committed to equity funds in Colombia go to multisectoral funds, 26% to infrastructure funds and 22% to
real estate funds.
"As you can see, funds are mainly oriented towards more traditional sectors such as infrastructure, real estate, energy, natural resources, etc. This is due to Colombia's different level of development compared to Europe," says Diego Gutierrez.