1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Hernan Fernandez of Angel Ventures Mexico (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You said you invest in Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Colombia. Are the angel investors also from all the four countries or are they all Mexican investors?

Hernan Fernandez: We have a very broad base of angel investors that represents 15 nationalities. We do have investors from the US and Canada, but the core is certainly Mexico. Colombia might be a close second. We have Germany, Spain, Japan, Thailand, and Australia.

Sramana Mitra: How did that come together? You probably know this. I’m also an MIT alumnus. Were you able to leverage the MIT alumni network?

Hernan Fernandez: Absolutely. Every now and then, we get some big company that we have no idea how to engage with. There’s a robotics company that we didn’t know how to engage with them. We first tap into the MIT network and see who can help us and do a better job at giving a fair opinion towards that entrepreneur.

In this particular investment, we rather played second fiddle, more like a follow-on investor. Deep tech is a global play. Where we can really be relevant is in business model plays that are more suited to our countries.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about some of the investments you’ve made. As you describe these investments, talk about how you found them. What state did you find them? What was it about these companies that compelled you to write the check?

Hernan Fernandez: I love good storytelling. The best part of being in the job is being with the most uber-optimistic people. Adolfo Babatz is also an MIT alumnus. He’s the founder of Clip. I would say it’s the most successful Mexican company today. It’s on its route to become a unicorn.

It’s overtaking most banks in Mexico. He worked in a company trying to develop products. He quit. He had a beautiful story together with two other founders of how he created this company in Mexico. You knew from day one that Babatz was passionate about why payments were so bad in Mexico.

At that time, I didn’t know if it was going to be successful or not, but I knew that he was passionate about what he was building. On the other hand, when we see a really good salesperson with a good PowerPoint presentation where he’s selling e-commerce for babies. In six months, he’s
probably going to be doing e-commerce for pets. This has happened to us before. We try to assess grit and determination. This is besides size of the market and the competitive dynamic. My special take is on the entrepreneur’s background story. It’s something that is very critical for us.

This segment is part 2 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Hernan Fernandez of Angel Ventures Mexico
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