Great news for Latin-American Startups! 500 Startups is launching its second Latin American Regional fund, Luchadores II, which is targeting $10M in commitments to invest in Spanish-speaking and LatAm founders.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC, a member of the World Bank Group) will be the first anchor investor in the 500 Startups’ Luchadores II Fund. Having one of the most important international groups and their network backing up Luchadores II makes this fund a very promising and interesting investment opportunity for potential LPs in the region. 500 Startups is the most active early stage investor in the LatAm & Spanish-speaking market with over 100 companies and over $8M USD invested in the region since 2013.

“The support of the IFC, their experience and influence across multiple industries and sectors is clearly an inflection point that will contribute to the startups in the #500Strong family,” said Santiago Zavala, Partner at 500 Startups and Managing Partner of Luchadores I & II.  “Partnering with one of the largest global development institutions focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries will give our portfolio even more access than before.”

Luchadores I’s portfolio companies have generated over 650 jobs in the region and have gone on to raise over $95M USD to date. Luchadores II will allow us to continue the pace and invest in more companies generating even more jobs in the region alongside continued ecosystem development.

Luchadores II plans to invest in over 120 companies through the LatAm 500 Seed Program over the next 2 years.

Portfolio companies including Konfio, Conekta, Nubity, Rocket, Clip, Boletia and 99 Minutos have already raised series A rounds and are proving their capability to offer real solutions to the LatAm market.

Luchadores II will be looking to invest in Education, Health, Financial Technologies, Software as a Service, E-commerce, Health Technologies, Tourism and other industries.

The 500 LatAM Seed Program, which is based in Mexico City,  will be a key component to Luchadores II. The 500 startups team has run 6 Seed Programs in Mexico City providing growth hacking, fundraising help, and more for the chosen companies.

“It’s no question that there are seriously talented people around the world, and the LatAm market is no exception,” said Dave McClure, Founding Partner 500 Startups. “That’s why we’ve been investing in the region for over 4 years. IFC shares our vision of actively supporting developing countries.”

The Luchadores team includes: Santiago Zavala as Partner, René Lomelí as Operations Director for LatAm, Daphne Salinas and Didier Quiroz as Associates.