Kaszek

About

Kaszek is the largest venture capital firm in Latin America, founded in 2011 by Hernan Kazah and Nicolas Szekasy ¹. Kazah co-founded MercadoLibre and served as its COO/CFO, while Szekasy served as MercadoLibre’s CFO for over a decade and led its $333 million Nasdaq IPO in 2007 ²³. The firm was born from the founders’ observation that exceptional entrepreneurs in Latin America were building high-potential companies but had virtually no venture capital available to help them scale ³.

The firm manages approximately $3 billion in assets under management across seven funds ³. Its fund history reflects rapid growth: Fund I (2011) raised $95 million, Fund II (2014) raised $135 million, Fund III (2017) raised $200 million, Fund IV (2019) raised $375 million alongside a $225 million Opportunity Fund I, Fund V (2021) raised $475 million alongside a $525 million Opportunity Fund II, and Fund VI (2023) raised $540 million alongside a $435 million Opportunity Fund III ⁴.

Kaszek maintains local offices in Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Mexico City, and Montevideo ¹. The firm is led by seven partners and a team of approximately 25 people ⁵. Since 2011, Kaszek has backed more than 130 companies, which collectively have raised more than $15.5 billion in capital ⁶. The portfolio has produced 13 unicorns, 2 IPOs, and 24 acquisitions ⁷.

In 2021, Kaszek partnered with MercadoLibre to launch MELI Kaszek Pioneer Corp, a SPAC that raised $287.5 million on Nasdaq targeting Latin American tech companies ⁸. The SPAC was liquidated in June 2023 after the partners concluded that market conditions and the SPAC product’s timeframe did not align to deliver anticipated outcomes ⁹.

Stated Thesis

Kaszek publicly describes its mission as helping “create a broad and vibrant technology ecosystem in Latin America by being the most trusted and value-add partner to our entrepreneurs across industries and economic cycles” ¹.

The firm states it is founder-first and industry-agnostic. Kazah has said: “We focus a lot on founding teams…If we find an entrepreneur that we really like, committed to what he/she is doing, and with lots of energy and a great vision, we immediately find ourselves enthusiastic about an industry that maybe we hadn’t considered before” ¹⁰.

Kaszek describes itself as looking for “visionary and inspirational founders who are honest, determined, and purpose driven” ¹. The firm states it invests “in any industry where technology and innovation offer a chance of significant disruption and value creation” ¹.

The firm emphasizes three core lessons from its MercadoLibre experience: avoid shortcuts, think long-term, and minimize dependence on external capital ². Szekasy has stated: “We don’t back businesses that claim that they have capital as a source of moat” ¹¹.

In its early-stage funds, Kaszek writes first checks at seed, Series A, or Series B stages, with check sizes ranging from $500,000 to $25 million ⁴. The Opportunity Fund focuses on later-stage investments in existing portfolio companies, with check sizes ranging from $10 million to $50 million across 10 to 15 companies ⁴.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 106 verified portfolio companies from the Kaszek website ⁵ and cross-referenced with press and aggregator data ⁷:

Sector distribution: Fintech dominates the portfolio. Of the 106 companies where sector data was available, at least 27 are fintech companies (25%), including Nubank, Creditas, Bitso, Konfio, Cora, Kushki, Pomelo, Warren, Xepelin, Fintual, Belvo, Aplazo, Guia Bolso, Remessa, Kanastra, Kalto, Exactly, Covalto, Cobre, Legiti, Yuno, TiendaPago, Cuenca, Clara (fintech), Hash, Z1, and Compara. E-commerce and marketplaces account for at least 6 companies (6%), including Kavak, NuvemShop, MadeiraMadeira, Valoreo, Dressgo, and Restorando. Healthtech includes at least 6 companies (6%): Alice, Dr. Consulta, Pipo Saude, Sou Smile, Melvi, and Wellhub. Edtech includes at least 4 companies (4%): Digital House, Camino Education, Crack the Code, and Open Education. Logistics/mobility includes at least 4 companies (4%): Loggi, 99 Minutos, Urbvan, and JOKR. Proptech includes at least 2 companies (2%): QuintoAndar and LaHaus. Foodtech includes at least 2 companies (2%): NotCo and Livup. The remaining ~51% spans enterprise SaaS, insurtech, hospitality, crypto, climate-tech, biotech, and other categories. This strong fintech weighting aligns with Kazah’s own statement that “almost everything comes down to fintech” ².

Geographic distribution: The portfolio is concentrated in Brazil and Mexico, with significant representation from Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, and Chile. The firm describes itself as geographically agnostic within Latin America ¹⁰, and this is largely borne out by the data, though Brazil is clearly the largest market.

Stage distribution: Kaszek primarily enters at seed and Series A stages. The firm invested in Nubank at the pre-seed stage (PowerPoint presentation) ², in QuintoAndar at Series A ¹², and in Dr. Consulta at an early stage ¹⁰. The Opportunity Fund then provides follow-on capital for later rounds. This two-fund structure (early-stage + opportunity) allows Kaszek to maintain ownership through growth stages.

Founder profile patterns: The portfolio shows a strong preference for founders with deep domain expertise and operators who have identified structural inefficiencies in Latin American markets. Many portfolio companies address services that are underpenetrated or poorly served in the region (banking, housing, healthcare access, logistics).

Co-investor patterns: Kaszek frequently co-invests with QED Investors (particularly in fintech), Tiger Global Management, Monashees, General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, and Quona Capital ⁷¹³. Sequoia Capital has been an LP in Kaszek’s funds since Fund I via Sequoia Heritage ¹³.

Notable gap between stated and actual thesis: While the firm describes itself as industry-agnostic, the portfolio reveals a pronounced fintech bias — approximately one-quarter of all investments are in financial services. This is consistent with Kazah’s candid admission that “almost everything comes down to fintech” but goes beyond what the stated thesis implies ².

Portfolio

The following table represents approximately 80% of Kaszek’s 130+ known investments, drawn from the firm’s website and cross-referenced with press sources.

Note: Many investment years are approximate, based on company founding dates. Entries marked with “~” indicate the year is estimated from available data. This table represents approximately 50 of 130+ known investments. For the remaining portfolio companies, individual investment dates and stages could not be independently verified.

In Their Own Words

“During our more than 10 years as entrepreneurs, we witnessed firsthand the tremendous opportunity that technology had in the region and, also, the lack of support for entrepreneurs.” — Hernan Kazah, LAVCA member profile ¹⁰

“We focus a lot on founding teams…If we find an entrepreneur that we really like, committed to what he/she is doing, and with lots of energy and a great vision, we immediately find ourselves enthusiastic about an industry that maybe we hadn’t considered before.” — Hernan Kazah, LAVCA member profile ¹⁰

“We usually tell our entrepreneurs to dream of creating a company that eventually can be worth a billion dollars, but not to reach a billion users. There aren’t a billion users in the region.” — Hernan Kazah, LAVCA member profile ¹⁰

“Almost everything comes down to fintech.” — Hernan Kazah, Americas Quarterly interview ²

“We don’t back businesses that claim that they have capital as a source of moat.” — Nicolas Szekasy, 20VC podcast ¹¹

“Exceptional founders were building high-potential companies, yet there was virtually no venture capital available to help them scale.” — Nicolas Szekasy, LAVCA interview ³

“There is a much larger pool of high-quality entrepreneurs with stronger networks, deeper experience and bigger ambitions.” — Nicolas Szekasy, LAVCA interview, on the evolution of Latin America’s startup ecosystem ³

“The application layer offers immense opportunity in Latin America…companies started now will be worth hundreds of billions in 20 years.” — Nicolas Szekasy, LAVCA interview, on AI opportunities in the region ³

“We think of Kaszek more as entrepreneurs and former operators partnering with founders rather than investors deploying capital.” — Hernan Kazah, Insignia Business Review podcast ¹⁵

“We’ve invested in over a hundred companies. We think that some of the most successful companies in Latin America are in our portfolio.” — Hernan Kazah, Insignia Business Review podcast ¹⁵

What Founders Say

“They’re not going to get fooled by the grow-at-all-costs mindset. What’s really constant with Kaszek is that no matter where the tide is, they always clear out the noise and focus on fundamentals.” — Carlos García, Founder and CEO of Kavak, Americas Quarterly ²

“Kaszek had great timing going into Latin America, which the big VCs in the U.S. were ignoring.” — Gabriel Gruber, Co-Founder of Exactly Finance, Americas Quarterly ²

“As our first investor, Kaszek has been in the trenches with us since the very early days. We benefited enormously from their unique blend of strategic ambition and deep industry knowledge, and developed a strong connection with all their team.” — Gabriel Braga, Co-Founder and CEO of QuintoAndar, Kaszek website ¹

“Kaszek has added and continues to add significant value to Nubank. They invested when we were a PowerPoint presentation and, during our initial days, they rolled up their sleeves and worked with us to help us find product-market fit and define and implement our distribution strategy.” — Nubank representative, Kaszek website ¹

Sources