Felipe Villamarín

Co-Founder, Rappi; Angel Investor at independent

Reviewed Updated Jul 5, 2026

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Location Bogotá, Colombia
Check Size $5K-$50K
Last Verified Investment Motai (Pre-Seed) — May 2025
Social @fevillamarin LinkedIn
Stage Focus
pre-seed seed
Sector Focus
fintech marketplaces logistics insurtech hrtech latam

Background

Felipe Villamarín is one of three co-founders of Rappi, the Colombian on-demand delivery platform, alongside Simón Borrero (CEO) and Sebastián Mejía (President) 12. Rappi was founded in Bogotá in 2015 and grew into one of Latin America’s most valuable technology companies, backed by Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, SoftBank, and DST Global 1.

Villamarín is a Bogotá native who studied at Universidad de los Andes 3. He maintains a lower media profile than his two co-founders; Rest of World’s 2022 reporting on the “Rappi mafia” — the network of former Rappi employees now running or backing LatAm startups — noted that Villamarín “rejected several interview requests” for that piece 2.

Beyond his operating role at Rappi, Villamarín is an active angel investor in the Latin American startup ecosystem, with a portfolio focused on early-stage companies across Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina 4.

Stated Thesis

Villamarín has not published a written investment thesis. Signal by NFX categorizes his focus areas as human capital / HRTech, payments, logistics, e-commerce, consumer internet, ConstructionTech, marketplaces, and fintech — all with a Latin America geographic lens 4.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 8 publicly disclosed investments (of 14 total on record via Signal by NFX) 4:

  • Stage: Almost entirely pre-seed and seed. Of 8 visible entries, 3 are pre-seed and 5 are seed. No Series A or later participation is disclosed.
  • Check size: Signal reports a $5K–$50K range with a $25K sweet spot 4. This is consistent with a personal angel program rather than an institutional vehicle.
  • Geography: Latin America across the board. Verified rounds are in Colombia (Bacu, Bia Energy), Mexico, Uruguay/regional (Latú Seguros), and Argentina.
  • Sector mix: The 8 visible investments span fintech (fidu), insurance (Latú Seguros), climate/energy (Bia Energy), on-demand and marketplace models, and consumer brands (Bacu) — with a bias toward companies serving underserved consumers and SMBs across LatAm.
  • Recency: Most recent verified round is Motai (pre-seed, May 2025) 4. Villamarín continues to write checks into 2025.
  • Rappi Mafia overlap: He is part of the informal network of Rappi co-founders and early employees who co-invest in and mentor LatAm startups 2.

Sample size is small (8 verified rounds). Percentages are not computed because the denominator is too small to be meaningful.

Portfolio

Company Year Stage Source
Motai 2025 Pre-Seed ($1M round) 4
Rurall 2024 Seed 4
C4c7us 2024 Seed 4
Bacu 2023 Seed ($6M round) 4
fidu 2022 Seed ($5M round) 4
Latú Seguros 2022 Seed ($7M round) 4
Bia Energy 2022 Pre-Seed ($6M round) 4
Nara 2022 Pre-Seed ($500K round) 4

Signal by NFX indicates approximately 6 additional undisclosed investments on record beyond the 8 listed above 4. This table represents ~57% of his known angel activity.

In Their Own Words

Felipe Villamarín is publicly reticent — Rest of World reported he declined to be interviewed for their 2022 Rappi Mafia feature 2. The most substantive long-form appearance we could verify is a Spanish-language podcast interview: The Frye Show episode #167, “Felipe Villamarin - Cofounder Rappi - Detrás del Prestigio, la Ejecución a Largo Plazo” 5. A verbatim transcript quote is not extracted here pending direct confirmation from the source audio.

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, “Rappi,” accessed July 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rappi↩↩

  2. Rest of World, “The ‘Rappi mafia’ is spreading across Colombia’s tech scene,” April 2022, accessed July 2026. https://restofworld.org/2022/rappi-mafia-delivery-startup-colombia-tech-scene/↩↩↩↩

  3. Y Combinator, “Q&A with Felipe Villamarin, Simon Borrero, and Sebastian Mejia, co-founders of Rappi,” accessed July 2026. https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/qa-with-felipe-villamarin-simon-borrero-and-sebastian-mejia-cofounders-of-rappi/↩

  4. Signal by NFX, “Felipe Villamarin’s Investment Profile,” accessed July 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/felipe-villamarin↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  5. The Frye Show podcast, Episode #167, “Felipe Villamarin - Cofounder Rappi - Detrás del Prestigio, la Ejecución a Largo Plazo,” accessed July 2026. https://podcasts.apple.com/co/podcast/167-felipe-villamarin-cofounder-rappi-detr%C3%A1s-del-prestigio/id1092995967?i=100054586184↩