NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

IGNIA, a leading venture capital fund in Mexico, has closed the Mexican vehicle of its Fund II, raised through Mexican publicly traded certificates known as CKDs. Mexican pension funds invested in the fund, marking a first for venture capital in Mexico and demonstrating institutional investors’ confidence in IGNIA’s track record, as well as the accelerated economic growth found at the base of the socio-economic pyramid in Mexico.

IGNIA’s international vehicle, a Canadian limited partnership fund, will invest alongside the Mexican vehicle and is currently fundraising from international and local investors, with plans to do a final closing in the next six months.

IGNIA is raising its second fund to continue investing in high growth enterprises, which targets 70% of the population at the base of the socio-economic pyramid of Mexico. IGNIA is focused on enterprises that provide goods and services that deliver positive impact on people’s lives, such as healthcare, housing, education, financial and basic services (water, energy and communications). The IGNIA senior team, with an accumulated 120 years of experience, are experts in doing business in the base of the pyramid in Mexico.

“We are very grateful for the confidence that Mexican pension funds have placed in IGNIA Fund II and for the opportunity to continue investing in the tremendous opportunity that exists in the base of the pyramid market, which to date has been hugely unattended,” saidAlvaro Rodriguez Arregui, Co-founder and Managing Partner of IGNIA. “We have identified companies in our pipeline that have an enormous potential. With IGNIA Fund II we will take advantage of the growing ecosystem of entrepreneurs in Mexico and the opportunities that we are finding.”

“When we founded IGNIA eight years ago we had the objective of connecting the capital markets with the base of the socioeconomic pyramid,” said Michael Chu, Co-founder and Managing Director of IGNIA. “The issuance of the CKDs in the public capital markets is a testament that this is possible.”