Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

Founding the first venture fund in Guatemala

16 Mar 2023 · 1 min

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In this interview excerpt, Speaker B confirms that their fund was the first venture capital fund raised and structured in Guatemala, operating as an exempted limited partnership. While the fund is homegrown, it does not invest solely in the Guatemalan ecosystem; approximately 65‑70% of its capital is deployed in the United States, with the remaining portion allocated across Latin America—primarily Mexico—and about 7‑8 deals made directly in Guatemala. The fund maintained its unique status in the country until around 2019‑2020, when a few additional venture funds began to emerge.

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If I'm not mistaken, your first fund was the first venture fund raised in Guatemala. Is that correct?
That's right. That's right. We were spearheading the venture capital movement in Guatemala, the first fund homegrown in Guatemala, which doesn't mean we invest exclusively in the local ecosystem. As a matter of fact, we invest about 70 to 65% of our capital in the US. and the rest in Latin America, favoring Mexico over other geographies. But we do invest in Guatemala as well. We've done about 7 or 8 deals here. But yes, we were the first fund structured as such, as an exempted limited partnership, receiving commitments, making capital calls to our LPs, and then deploying that in both sides of our portfolio. Yeah. And we remained as such all the way up to about 2019, maybe 2020, when another couple of funds started popping up.