Brian Requarth

Background

Brian Requarth is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and co-founder and General Partner of Latitud, a pre-seed venture fund and startup infrastructure platform for Latin America ¹. He was born and raised in Sebastopol, a small town in Northern California’s Sonoma County ²³. He attended San Diego State University, where he studied Spanish, and also studied at Universidad Antonio de Nebrija in Spain ⁴.

In 2003, Requarth drove from California to Costa Rica and onward through Central America to Colombia, a six-month journey that led him to fall in love with Latin America ³. He initially taught English in Colombia and ran small businesses including a translation and web development company before co-founding VivaReal, a real estate marketplace in Brazil, in 2009 ²⁵. He served as CEO of VivaReal from 2009 to July 2016, growing the company to over 500 employees, acquiring real estate CRM provider Suahouse, and raising approximately $74 million in venture capital ⁵⁶. At one point in 2011, the company had only $87 in the bank before securing a $300,000 investment that saved the business ².

In December 2017, Requarth orchestrated a merger between VivaReal and ZAP Imoveis, owned by Latin America’s largest media company Grupo Globo, forming Grupo ZAP ⁵⁶. He became Executive Chairman of the combined entity ⁵. In March 2020, Grupo ZAP was acquired by OLX Brasil for R$2.9 billion (approximately $600-640 million USD), with the transaction closing on October 30, 2020 ²⁵⁶. Requarth has publicly shared that the deal cost him over $100 million in taxes due to a corporate structure mistake made during VivaReal’s early days — an experience that directly motivated him to build Latitud’s company formation product ¹⁷.

Requarth co-founded Latitud in 2020 alongside Gina Gotthilf (former VP Growth at Duolingo) and Yuri Danichenko ⁸⁹. Latitud raised an $11.5-13 million seed round in March 2022, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz (partner Angela Strange) and NFX, with participation from Endeavor, Canary, FJ Labs, Ganas Ventures, and over 100 founder-angel investors including David Velez (Nubank), Sebastian Mejia (Rappi), Carlos Garcia (Kavak), and Sergio Furio (Creditas) ⁸⁹¹⁰. NFX General Partner Pete Flint had known Requarth for over a decade and had advised VivaReal ⁷.

In addition to Latitud, Requarth is co-founder and Chairman of Kocomo, a vacation home co-ownership platform that raised $6 million plus $50 million in debt financing in 2021 ¹¹¹², and co-founder and Chairman of Aptuno, a Colombian proptech rental platform that raised $5.1 million in seed funding led by Dalus Capital and Kayyak Ventures ¹³. He is also co-founder and CEO of Camu, an AI-powered company automating corporate tax processes in Brazil ¹⁴.

Requarth is the author of Viva the Entrepreneur: Founding, Scaling, and Raising Venture Capital in Latin America ⁵. He appeared as a guest investor on Shark Tank Mexico ¹⁵. He hosts the Latitud Podcast, a leading podcast about startups and venture capital in Latin America ¹.

Stated Thesis

Self-reported. Requarth publicly describes his investing focus as Latin American technology startups, particularly at the pre-seed stage ¹⁶. Through Latitud Ventures, his stated areas of interest include fintech (infrastructure, payments, embedded lending), vertical SaaS, healthtech, marketplaces, e-commerce enablers, and proptech, with special attention to the Brazilian and Mexican markets ¹⁶¹⁷.

Requarth has stated on his NFX Signal profile: “I am focusing primarily on investing in tech startups in Latin America. I like Marketplaces, PropTech and SaaS startups” ¹⁸. He states he rarely invests in US startups ¹⁸.

He has described his investment parameters as a minimum check of $100,000, maximum of $5,000,000, with a sweet spot of $1,500,000 for personal angel investments ¹⁸. Through Latitud Ventures Fund II, the typical institutional check is approximately $200,000 for roughly 5% ownership at pre-seed ¹⁷.

The Latitud Ventures manifesto describes Fund II’s approach as leading 40 pre-seed rounds and co-investing in 20 seed rounds over three years, with 25% of the fund reserved for follow-on investments ¹⁶¹⁷.

Requarth has also articulated a broader ecosystem thesis, stating that Latin America attracted $14.8 billion in venture-backed funding in 2021 alone — surpassing the combined total from the previous six years — yet the region receives only half the venture funding of markets twice its size ⁸¹⁹.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 123 active portfolio companies listed on the Latitud Ventures portfolio page ²⁰, the following patterns emerge. Note: these investments are through Latitud Ventures (the fund), not all personally attributable to Requarth as an individual angel. He claims 80-150+ personal angel investments across various sources ³¹⁵, but only a handful are independently verifiable outside the Latitud portfolio.

Sector breakdown (123 portfolio companies): - Fintech: 45 of 123 (37%) — including Pomelo, StarkBank, Yuno, Finkargo, Belo, Jefa, Malga, Kanastra, NG Cash, Silverguard, Dinie, Midas, Payana, and many others ²⁰ - E-commerce / Retail: 14 of 123 (11%) — including Clubbi, Diferente, Linkana, Newtail, Zigo, Farmu ²⁰ - Proptech / Real Estate: 9 of 123 (7%) — including aMORA, Duppla, Kocomo, Pulppo, Woba, Pilar, Vest ²⁰ - Healthcare: 8 of 123 (7%) — including Alinea Health, Clivi, Kuri, Liti, Arvo Saude, Extendeal, Saludtools ²⁰ - EdTech: 7 of 123 (6%) — including AnyoneAI, Udocz, Nulinga, BeConfident, Hunty, Apprenty, Education Journey ²⁰ - Enterprise / SaaS: 8 of 123 (7%) — including Treble AI, Leadsales, Salvy, Maggu ²⁰ - Insurance: 3 of 123 (2%) — Latu Seguros, Teddy, Zarv ²⁰ - Other (AgTech, Gaming, HR, Logistics, Cybersecurity, DeepTech): approximately 29 of 123 (24%) ²⁰

Stage distribution: Predominantly pre-seed. Latitud Ventures Fund I invested across 100+ startups. Fund II targets $250K average checks at pre-seed, with some seed co-investments ¹⁶¹⁷.

Geographic concentration (123 companies): - Brazil: approximately 58 of 123 (47%) ²⁰ - Mexico: approximately 30 of 123 (24%) ²⁰ - Argentina: approximately 14 of 123 (11%) ²⁰ - Colombia: approximately 11 of 123 (9%) ²⁰ - Other (Chile, Peru, Central America, USA): approximately 10 of 123 (8%) ²⁰

Founder access model: Latitud operates a fellowship program (13+ cohorts) that serves as a deal pipeline — 1,250+ fellows have collectively raised over $1 billion in venture capital ²¹. The fund often writes the first check in companies that emerge from the fellowship. As Requarth has noted, the equity-free program allows the team to get to know founders before deciding to invest, avoiding adverse selection ¹⁷¹⁹.

Co-investor patterns: Portfolio companies have gone on to raise from a16z, DST, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, Kaszek, Monashees, QED, Ribbit, and Sequoia ¹⁶. The fund explicitly positions itself as a first-check partner that helps companies graduate to larger institutional rounds.

Notable LP base for Fund II: David Velez (Nubank), Henrique Dubugras (Brex), Patrick Sigrist (iFood), Sergio Furio (Creditas), Sebastian Mejia (Rappi), Stelleo Tolda (Mercado Libre), Carlos Garcia (Kavak); institutional LPs include Globo Ventures, Galicia Ventures, Industry Ventures, NFX, and FJ Labs ¹⁶.

Notable gap vs. stated thesis: While Requarth states interest in proptech and marketplaces on his NFX profile, the actual Latitud portfolio is heavily skewed toward fintech (37%), significantly more concentrated than his stated sector-agnostic approach suggests. Proptech represents only 7% of the portfolio despite being a stated focus and his personal background in the sector.

Portfolio

The following table includes independently verified investments attributable to Brian Requarth personally or through Latitud Ventures. Latitud’s portfolio page lists 123 companies ²⁰; this table highlights those with external verification beyond the portfolio page.

This table represents approximately 14% of the 123 companies in the Latitud Ventures portfolio. Most investments are pre-seed checks of $100K-$250K. Exact investment dates for most Latitud portfolio companies are not independently confirmed; years shown with “~” are estimates based on when the companies were publicly associated with Latitud.

In Their Own Words

“The thesis is really born out of just the experience of being part of an ecosystem that didn’t have, frankly, a lot of support.” — Brian Requarth, The Full Ratchet podcast, Episode 293 ¹⁹.

“If you don’t believe in it, other people won’t believe in it either. If you believe in it with everything you have, it’s hard to bet against the entrepreneur.” — Brian Requarth, The Frye Show podcast ⁶.

“If you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu.” — Brian Requarth, on his consolidation strategy at VivaReal, Alejandro Cremades interview ².

“Latin America’s startup landscape has changed drastically… Latitud Ventures is supporting startups when they need it most, providing their first institutional check.” — Brian Requarth, Latitud Ventures Fund II announcement, November 2023 ¹⁶.

“Historically, the biggest headwind, in my opinion, was capital.” — Brian Requarth, on challenges facing LatAm entrepreneurs, The Full Ratchet podcast ¹⁹.

“They’re screwing the cap table up, but they’re doing it unknowingly. Many times… You think you’re getting a good deal by buying 50%. But you’re really just killing the company.” — Brian Requarth, on aggressive early-stage angels in Latin America, The Full Ratchet podcast ¹⁹.

“We had to pay US$100M in taxes because of a rookie mistake.” — Brian Requarth, reflecting on incorrect corporate structuring during the OLX acquisition, Latitud blog ¹.

What Founders Say

“Latitud has been like a co-founder of BHub, helping us build the product and fundraise our Seed and Series A rounds. Latitud was also our first customer and helped develop the service.” — BHub founder, Latitud website ²⁰.

“We started talking to Latitud when we were just 3 folks with an idea. Without them opening their network for us as our first check, we wouldn’t be where we are today.” — Unnamed Latitud portfolio founder, Latitud website ²⁰.

“Latitud merges the VC and entrepreneurial mentality: they cut the fluff, get real, and their hands-on advice and connections have truly pushed us forward to build something huge and impactful.” — Unnamed Latitud portfolio founder, Latitud website ²⁰.

“Latitud has been giving for a while the best support to early-stage founders in the region. They’re full-on experts (and even better people).” — Unnamed Latitud portfolio founder, Latitud fellowship page ²¹.

Note: These testimonials are sourced from the Latitud website and fellowship page, which represent firm-curated content. No independently sourced founder testimonials about Brian Requarth personally (from press, podcasts, or social media) were found during research.

Connections

• Co-Founder & CEO, VivaReal (2009-2016) — scaled to 500+ employees, raised $74M ⁵⁶
• Executive Chairman, Grupo ZAP (2017-2020) — formed through merger with ZAP Imoveis (Grupo Globo); acquired by OLX Brasil for ~$600M ⁵⁶
• Co-Founder, Latitud (2020-present) — alongside Gina Gotthilf (former Duolingo VP Growth) and Yuri Danichenko ⁸⁹
• Co-Founder & Chairman, Kocomo — vacation home co-ownership platform, raised $6M equity + $50M debt ¹¹¹²
• Co-Founder & Chairman, Aptuno — Colombian proptech rental platform, raised $5.1M seed ¹³
• Co-Founder & CEO, Camu — AI-powered corporate tax automation in Brazil ¹⁴
• Investor, Shark Tank Mexico — appeared as a guest shark investor ¹⁵
• Board Member, Founder Institute ⁴
• Advisor, Giving Assistant ⁴
• Frequent co-investor with Pete Flint (NFX) — Flint advised VivaReal for over a decade; both invested in La Haus; NFX co-led Latitud’s seed round ⁷¹⁸
• Frequent co-investor with David Velez (Nubank) — Velez is an LP in Latitud Ventures Fund II; both invested in La Haus ¹⁶¹⁸
• Frequent co-investor with Hernan Kazah (Kaszek) — co-invested in La Haus Series A ¹⁸
• Speaker: South Summit Brazil, BayBrazil, FINNOSUMMIT, Wharton FinTech ²⁵²⁶²⁷

Sources