Unevenly Distributed

Some life updates.

It’s been almost a year since I last sent out an edition of this newsletter. A lot has happened in that time. I moved to a new city in a new country (if you’re based in the Bay Area and want to grab a coffee, say hi!). I also joined FirstCheck Africa & Ralicap as a Venture Partner (if you’re building a pre-seed or seed stage company in Africa or Latin America, say hi!). I’ve also settled into a new role at Endeavor - focused on helping our entrepreneurs find the right capital partners.

Some newsletter updates.

It’s been hard to put out this newsletter while settling into a new country and juggling multiple new commitments. I have about 3 unpublished articles in my drafts that I’ve started and just haven’t been able to take to completion.

I’ve decided to experiment with a new format for the newsletter. I’ll be modeling it very closely after Benedict Evan’s and Matt Levine’s newsletters. Meaning I’ll mostly do a mix commentary and curation on the most important news in technology.

I’ll still focus on emerging markets. Mostly Sub-Saharan Africa, MENA, LATAM, and Asia. I don’t know what the publishing schedule will be, but hopefull I can get something out once a month. I’ll still put out longer pieces whenever I have a topic to explore and my schedule permits it.

There are a handful of other changes coming to the newsletter in the next few weeks/months. Stay tuned.

On to the newsletter.

A new era for Softbank in Latin America

There’s a really nice article in protocol that explores the rise of the VC ecosystem in Latin America. It heavily quotes a handful of investors including former Softbank Managing Partner, Shu Nyatta. It also pretty extensively features the Softbank Latin America fund - arguably the most important investor in the region over the past few years.

In the 5 years from 2014-2018, Latin America received $4.7B in venture capital funding. Then in March of 2019, Softbank announced a $5B fund focused entirely on the region. A month later, it would announce a $1B investment into just one company - Rappi. In 2021, Softbank would announce a plan to commit a further $3B to Latin America. Given the amount of interest in Latin America today, it’s easy to forget how big of a deal the Softbank Latin America fund (then ...