Opera Ventures

We facilitate the growth of emerging companies by providing not only financial investment but also strategic guidance driving ideas to real businesses.

The Firm invests in early-stage to early-growth companies by becoming a leading Series Seed and Series A investor in startups that drive innovative business models tailored for the Latin American market. We manage two investment funds (one of them in divestment period), and we strive to perform the best possible investments by attracting best-in-class entrepreneurs, applying exhaustive and progressive methodologies to assess opportunities and leveraging our intangible assets to boost our portfolio returns, all while being compliant with major global standards for VC practices.

We are a VC firm that accelerates early-stage Latin American startups on three fronts: investment, knowledge transfer, and community building. We bet on projects with the greatest potential from their ideation, so that they can grow and scale exponentially, generating a positive and measurable impact on the economy and society. We are formed by a team of 15 people who are distributed across 7 different areas.

We know it’s time for LATAM. Opportunities are vast and wide; experienced operators are building more startups than ever before. As founders, we don’t primarily back projects, we back founders: Who How what We understand deep regional problems, and look for operators obsessed with them. We love investing in people captivated by a specific, targeted problem; who are willing to try a million ways of solving it. If we invest in you, it’s because we believe in you. We let founders succeed following their ideas, convictions and objectives. We hate micromanaging and a big brother attitude. We’re here for the long-ride. We are looking for very long partnerships. We will work together from the start line to the finish line. We execute extremely targeted interventions. We will come in when you need us, execute, and help fix any issue. We support companies in between this framework: Soft landing: Entering a new country in Latam? We can support you expanding operations. Investment: We are very experienced raising capital, and our VC network expands throughout regions. Network: Whoever you need to contact, we most probably have access to them. You’re an email away from the most experienced operators in the region.

Carao Ventures is an early-stage VC firm for small and medium sized markets in Latin America. We support entrepreneurs who have the technical skills and grit needed to disrupt industries. Where does Carao Ventures invest? Carao Ventures considers investments in every spanish-speaking country in Latin America. We have a particular interest in companies operating in Central America, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. What industries does Carao Ventures invest in? We view almost every industry in our region as uncompetitive and in severe need of an innovation overhaul, and we believe that early-stage venture funding for Latin America's talented entrepreneurs is a key component to addressing this. We invest with the goal of creating valuable and competitive companies across most industries. We do NOT invest in certain industries, including but not limited to weapons, alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. What stages does Carao Ventures invest in? Recognizing the shortcomings of nomenclature, Carao Ventures generally seeks to invest in companies that are in Pre-Seed, Seed, or Pre-Series A stages. There is more flexibility for companies run in the US by Latin American founders (reminder: these types of companies need to have a relevant portion of their operations based in Carao Ventures target geography). What does Carao Ventures tend to look for in the companies and teams it invests in? Other than geographical and business stage criteria, we favors companies with the following characteristics: Companies that are developing or making smart use of technologies or innovative business concepts that have the potential to transform the way a sizable industry or market operates, or to become a key driver within a whole new industry. Companies that have defined a value proposition that is scalable, have international market potential, and are preferably not capital intensive. Companies that have a value proposition derived from competitive advantages that are intrinsic to, or present in, LatAm (e.g. distinctive capabilities, a market gap, a specific sector’s recognition, access to a resource, etc.) Companies led by talented multi-disciplinary teams that are self-sufficient to the point that they can effectively design, produce, and sell their product or service; Companies that have not received multiple previous rounds of funding without reaching traction in the business. Companies that have favorable prospects for subsequent rounds of financing or future liquidity events, as well as a straightforward exit strategy. How much does Carao Ventures invest per ticket? Recognizing the shortcomings of nomenclature, ticket sizes for different investment rounds are generally as follows (all values in United States Dollars): Pre-seed: $25,000 to $100,000 Seed: $250,000 to $1,000,000 Pre-Series A/Series A: $500,000 to $1,750,000 What is the best way to contact Carao Ventures? We prefer you contact us via warm intros. We value the opinion of our relationships and a reference goes a long way. If you don’t have access to someone in our network, that is perfectly fine. You can apply through our contact form on this website and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. For questions related to press, partnerships, and other institutional enquiries, please send us an email to info@caraov.com. What can I expect for Carao Ventures investment process? The investment process is as follows: Step 1: Prospective startups apply through the website’s application form Step 2: Startups selected for an initial call will be contacted via e-mail Step 3: Startups are contacted within 2 weeks with an indication of next steps Step 4: Depending on the outcome of the previous step, startups enter deeper due diligence processes with Carao Ventures (e.g., additional interviews, questions, evaluations) Step 5: Depending on the outcome of the previous step, startups are presented to Carao Ventures Fund I’s Investment Committee that will ultimately determine whether or not a company will receive an investment. From start to finish, the investment evaluation process can take between 3 weeks to 3 months, with an expected average of 1.5 months. Does Carao Ventures sign NDAs? Carao Ventures does not sign NDAs unless the information being shared describes highly proprietary information relating to a novel technology that is core to a company’s competitive advantage and business strategy. Not signing NDAs is the norm in Venture Capital investing. For more information on why most VC investors do not sign NDAs, please refer to Brad Feld’s take on the matter here. Does Carao Ventures invest in competing companies? Carao considers competing companies on a case by case basis. We prefer when companies do not overlap in geographies, and always consider the opinion of our portfolio company founders before making a decision.