MAYA Capital raises $100 million in new fund

MAYA Capital – the asset manager early stage by Lara Lemann and Mônica Saggioro – has just concluded the raising of its second fund: US$ 100 million to seek opportunities in one of the most challenging moments of the Brazilian venture capital market.

“To have dry powder now it will make a huge difference,” Mônica told the Brazil Journal. “There are many good opportunities in Latin America and it is precisely in these difficult times that many successful companies emerged in the past.”

A good part of the investors in fund II are family offices that were already LPs in fund I, created about four years ago.

But MAYA also managed to attract institutional investors from the United States and Europe, including large banks and Cendana Capital, a ‘fund of funds’ American who invests in mutual funds very early stage in different geographies. (In Latin America, MAYA was Cendana’s first investment).

Mônica and Lara have already allocated a good part of the capital of fund I and have already found two unicorns: NotCo, which manufactures plant-based foods, and Merama. The fund keeps a small portion in cash for follow-ons.

According to the founders, the MOIC of fund I is 2x above the benchmark Cambridge Associates global venture capital fund.

MAYA is agnostic in terms of sectors, but always seeks to be the first check for startups, earning a relevant stake in the capital that justifies the efforts it makes to help startups.

The manager helps both in hiring talent and fundraising with other funds as well as commercial efforts, which they call ‘billion dollar intro’.

“We use our network and connections to help startups connect with their first customers,” said Lara. “In this last year alone, we’ve done over 200 of these performances.”

MAYA helped, for example, NotCo to close a commercial partnership with Starbucks in the USA, and Nilo Saúde to close a contract with Notredame Intermédica.

In fund II, MAYA has already made five investments and is expected to announce more soon.

The first of these was Tarken, a Brazilian agtech that created a grain marketplace. MAYA co-led the round together with Mandi, the manager of Antônio Moreira Salles and Julio Bennetti.

MAYA also led the seed round of Finkargo, a Colombian fintech focused on financing the import and export of cargo.

“This is still a very analog industry,” said Lara. “Finkargo is putting technology to facilitate this process and give customers more visibility, for example, where the cargo is and when it will arrive.”

Source: Brazil Journal