We interviewed Santiago Pinto, in the framework of the Newtopia Summit, Member of the Board of Advisors at BitPatagonia and one of the LPs that make up our community, with whom we talked about 3 key points:
- His role as an investor in the Venture Capital world.
- The opportunities within the Latin American technology industry.
- The importance of having a strategy when raising capital.
Santiago has a long track record in the Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem. He is Co-Founder of several companies such as Motormax, Smowtion Media and Bumeran.com. In addition, he is Angel Investor, Founders Mentor and Advisor of several startups such as BitPatagonia, a blockchain technology company that supports SMEs in their automation process and industrial practices.
Below, we share the full interview with Santiago Pinto.
Santi, why are you an investor in the world of Venture Capital
My origins were as an entrepreneur in the late 90s, when all this did not exist and I learned everything from experience and when I was able to make an exit, I learned that it had been an incredible ride and that I couldn’t work for anyone else. So I felt very identified with the entrepreneur when they gave me a hand and it seems to me that it is the best opportunity I have to add value.
What opportunities do you see in the technology industry in LATAM for entrepreneurs? And which verticals within the tech industry are you most excited about?
The world is more similar to Latin America than to the United States and Europe. Despite this, Latin America has 1.5% investment in entrepreneurial capital compared to the United States or India, the United States 50% and India 15%. We have to grow at least 10x. So Latin America has everything to grow.
Also, we are a very young and incredibly creative population and so our opportunities are not only within Latin America, but we could expand to a lot of non-traditional markets like ours.
Now, which Verticals are the ones I like the most? I am here to learn from entrepreneurs and let them take me. I care for them a lot. We have to turn the world upside down and do it all again, but we are going to learn that with them.
Everything that is AdTech, everything that is Fintech, Web3, Biotechnology… There is great fun awaiting.
Why is it necessary to have a strategy when raising capital?
Raising capital is a process and like any process, including going to kindergarten to start education, has fairly precise steps. If you skip a step, or don’t prepare well you could end up thinking that there is no money. There is money for well-prepared projects and for that you have to be clear about what you are going to need the money for, how you are going to use it, how you are going to prepare the pitch, at what time and what funds you are going to contact at all times.
If you first went to angels that provided contacts and it’s Smart Money then obviously you go to funds like Newtopia that are going to take you to the big leagues. And if we did all that, perfectly, we achieved graduation, which is ringing the bell and doing an IPO.
At Newtopia we highlight the value of our community, which identifies us and makes us a fund by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, and in particular, the place that each of our LPs has in it. They are part of the daily support we provide to the startups to help them become their best version.
We want to continue supporting, leveraging and encouraging companies that seek to transform Latin America with technological solutions. Therefore, we support those startups in the early stages with tech DNA. If this is your case, we invite you to apply to Newtopia VC.
