Executive: Ricardo Scavazza, Managing Partner
Member name: Patria Investments
Year Founded: 1994
HQ: São Paulo, Brazil 
Offices:  London, New York, Dubai, Hong Kong, Bogotá, Medellin, Cayman Islands, Santiago and Montevideo.
AUM: USD44b+ 

LAVCA: Can you describe Patria’s investment strategy since it was founded? How has the firm adapted to changes that the region has faced over time? 

Ricardo: Since Patria was founded in 1994, our private equity buyout arm has focused on the active management of companies, which remains a guiding principle. Over time, we have expanded across multiple strategies, with our asset management platform now including growth equity, venture capital, infrastructure, real estate and credit products.   

In the beginning, our private equity strategy was sector agnostic. We quickly learned that it was better to specialize in key industries of the Latin American economy that have proved resilient across economic cycles and market cyclicality. Today, we are focused on six key sectors: healthcare, food & beverage, agribusinesses, power and energy, digital and tech services, logistics and transportation. Each of these sectors has grown at faster rates than the region’s overall GDP.  

We’ve also become specialists in market consolidation. Our buy-and-build strategy was inspired by successes in our first vintages, including healthcare group DASA and education platform Anhanguera. In both cases, we identified a fragmented industry, acquired a small player and scaled it to become a market leader through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth. This strategy remains at the core of what we do today.  

In terms of adapting to challenges, currency volatility remains a significant risk for investors in the region. To mitigate our currency risk, we deploy capital gradually over time and invest in high-growth sectors that have inflation protections built in. Many of our companies operate across multiple countries in Latin America, which helps to mitigate overall currency exposure as most currencies in the region are not highly correlated.  

Based on your experience with multiple vintages of private equity funds, what key factors do you consider before making a new investment? Could you highlight a few standout success stories from your portfolio and explain why they were successful?   

It all starts with the right sector. We look for fragmented high-growth industries with the potential to create a leading player through market consolidation. Through our buy-and-build strategy, we bridge the liquidity gap that exists for smaller assets by consolidating them into a large platform with enough scale for an IPO or strategic sale. We also focus exclusively on business models that are already proven to be profitable, so that we can rely on efficiency levers for growth. 

One of our flagship success cases is our investment in Anhanguera, where we built a private education platform for working-class adults in Brazil, pioneering a hybrid education model. As a control investor, I served as the company’s CFO and then CEO. We controlled the company for a decade and completed 34 acquisitions that turned Anhanguera into one of the largest private education companies in the region. When we took the company public in 2007, the company was valued at over USD1b on the Brazilian stock exchange, delivering a MOIC of 25x. To date, we have listed 9 companies on both the Brazilian and Nasdaq stock exchanges. 

Two other companies stand out as recent cases of success in our portfolio. In the fitness segment, we invested in SmartFit and grew the company through a mix of acquisitions and organic growth, eventually expanding to 15 countries in Latin America. The company went public in 2021 and continues to grow today, with a dominant market position in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Chile. In the food segment, we created a platform for food distribution to restaurants called Delly’s, which we expanded through the consolidation of 15 smaller businesses throughout Brazil. The success of this investment attracted CVC Private Equity as a partner, which now holds a co-controlling position in the company with us.  

In January 2021, Patria went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange. How has Patria expanded since the IPO? 

The IPO has strengthened Patria as an institution that manages long-term capital, enabling us to perpetuate our platform for the long-term, strengthen our balance sheet and improve our governance. We are also applying our expertise in consolidation strategies to build a market leader in alternative asset management.  

Our public offering has enabled us to undertake multiple strategic acquisitions in the last three years, as many of these have been structured through all-share agreements, which helps to align interests across all stakeholders and attract top talent.  

These strategic acquisitions have built Patria into a global diversified platform. The addition of Kamaroopin and Igah Ventures added growth equity and venture capital strategies; the combination with Chile-based Moneda Asset Management added the largest credit investment platform in the region; the joint venture with Bancolombia and acquisition of Nexus Capital established a real estate platform in Colombia; and the acquisition of VBI Real Estate and Credit Suisse’s REIT business expanded our real estate and credit platforms in Brazil. Patria is now the largest real estate GP in Latin America outside of financial institutions.  

Outside of Latin America, Patria recently completed the acquisition of Abrdn’s private equity unit in Europe, entering the fund of funds/secondaries market on an international level. Due to these acquisitions and partnerships, Patria’s AUM has grown from USD14b in January 2021 to over USD44b in 2024.