Private equity investor Mesoamerica and company builder Polymath Ventures have formed a strategic partnership to build and scale high-impact companies across Latin America.

(Press Release) THE FIRST PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN A PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTOR AND A COMPANY BUILDER

Mesoamerica, a pioneering private equity investor in growth markets across Latin America, and Polymath Ventures, a company builder for the middle class in emerging markets, have formed a landmark strategic partnership to build and scale high-impact companies across Latin America.

The partnership leverages the complementary capabilities of both firms to systematically build and scale companies using a combination of business and design-thinking methodologies, representing a fundamental shift in the private equity investment paradigm. The first phase of the partnership includes the formation of a co-investment vehicle to support the growth of existing and future ventures built by Polymath in Latin America. The co-investment vehicle, which will have a target size of US$40M for its initial stage, will be managed by Mesoamerica as General Partner, and will provide funding to Polymath’s ventures with a focus on the Series A and B rounds.

Mesoamerica and Polymath share a common vision of developing emerging market economies through building and scaling businesses that solve deep societal needs. By combining their highly complementary expertise, this partnership will accelerate and amplify that vision.

Mesoamerica is a Latin American private equity firm. Since 1996 Mesoamerica has invested in industries such as telecommunications, cable TV, consumer products, construction, renewable energy, call centers and outsourcing, and food retail (including household Colombian brands such as OMA and Presto), among others. Mesoamerica identifies high potential opportunities in the region´s growth markets, partners with companies and their visionary leaders, and invests capital and knowledge to build investment platforms that drive outstanding growth, profitability, and social impact. In 2015, Mesoamerica partnered with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, a leading Canadian pension fund, to invest in Spanish-speaking Latin America, and serve as the pension fund’s strategic partner in the region, investing alongside Latin American family offices. Mesoamerica has offices in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Panama.

“We believe the combination of Polymath’s unique early stage company building capabilities and Mesoamerica’s experience in growth and scalability will allow us to advance on our common purpose of building massively scalable companies to positively impact the Latin American region”

said Luis Javier Castro, Founder and Managing Partner of Mesoamerica.

Operating since 2012, Polymath Ventures fuses business and design-thinking to create high-impact ventures — from scratch — to scale massively across emerging markets. Polymath deploys a proprietary methodology to design, operate, and scale ventures across a variety of industries, and combines it with a unique talent philosophy. Companies are designed in-house through months of research and testing, then founding teams, led by professionals with 10+ years of experience and an entrepreneurial fire, are recruited to lead the ventures. This unique combination of talent, methodologies, and support significantly increases the likelihood of a venture’s success. Polymath has built and launched 7 ventures over the past 5 years across the Transportation, Financial Services, Education, Employment and Consumer Food Retail sectors, and has raised US$20M+ of equity and debt financing for those companies. Polymath has offices in Colombia, Mexico, and China.

“We are amazed to find a partner like Mesoamerica that shares our vision and values so entirely, and complements our capabilities so seamlessly,”

said Wenyi Cai, Founder and Managing Partner of Polymath Ventures.