Episode 015 - Redpoint e.Ventures, São Paulo, Brasil Anderson Thees, Managing Partner

Introduction

• Welcome to Distilling Venture Capital.  I am your host, Bill Griesinger;

Distilling VC is a visionary podcast that provides an insightful and informed view of the key trends affecting the VC and tech startup world.  My mission is to cut through and go beyond the hype that tends to dominate the tech and VC landscape.  And provide you with information you can use.  

Episode Introduction:

• Welcome back everyone.  We have what I believe is a very interesting program for you today b/c I have the pleasure of speaking with a true veteran of the Brazilian technology investment landscape, Anderson Thees, who is a Managing Partner at Redpoint e.Ventures based in São Paulo, Brasil. 
• Anderson, thank you very much for making the time to join me today.  
• So, I labeled you a veteran in tech investing in Brasil because you've been at it for about a decade or so with Redpoint.  I think it would be useful to begin by telling the listeners about your background and experience and then how Redpoint eVentures came about.
• In today's episode, Anderson will cover, 
• • Talk about Redpoint eVentures' development in Brasil;
  • You have a Dedicated Fund in Brasil;  How does this help you and how does the affiliation with Sil. Valley network add value?
  • • Ability to bring not only funding, but Silicon Valley access and global best practices to local entrepreneurs.
  • When was Fund launched and size of Fund?
  • We were the first fund to raise more than $100M.  Fund we raised in 2012 was targeted at a $130M Cap.   We were over-subscribed at more than $150M but we needed to stay with the $130M cap.
  • Huge first fund – much bigger than we expected
  • The fund is fully deployed now;
  • Macro economy tanked and the tech and e-commerce ecosystem 
  • We have now three unicorns with another coming… 

• We raised another fund of $175M in 2018 which we are investing out of today.

• Investment themes – what types of technologies & deals do you look for?
• We think of our pipeline of investments in two ways; Proactive deal flow, our investment thesis;  Second is incoming deals that come to us
• But always tech-driven theme plus market must be big or will become big fast
• Series A and B we do, Series A is our core.

 

• Most important criterion is the founding team, especially the earlier we invest…
• How you approach deal flow and qualifying target companies;   Verticals, fintech, education, retail, SW B2B;  
• We do have concentrations in Fintech and SaaS B2B;  but this is mainly driven because of demand not due to our selection process

Other:

• Regarding investment themes, I'd like to get your take on Insurtech and the opportunities you see there; you recently had a conversation with CQCS on this topic;
• • Anderson discusses Insure-tech;  Insurance is actually larger than banking in terms of industry size and moving toward its own bucket in fintech;
  • Cost of storing data, reduction of fraud, use of AI;  all affect the channels and deployment as well as how the very core product is developed and priced
  • We discuss Rebel, now Open-Co's closing of a $270M credit round led by Goldman Sachs

• What's next for scaling fintech?  Your sense of advancements in access to financial services, the regulatory environment and macro trends?