Updates
Magma Partners doubles down on Mexican startups with Rampa Ventures acquisition
After many years of working with their team, we are excited to announce that we are joining forces with the Guadalajara-based accelerator Rampa!
The 2023 version of our annual Magma Summit was in Buenos Aires, Argentina this April. Buenos Aires welcomed founders, LPs and the Magma team with open arms, delicious food and perfect weather throughout the four-day event.
We host an annual summit to foster connections and collaborations between LPs, Founders and the Magma team, share stories, and deepen our understanding of Latin America's startup ecosystem. Here's a day-by-day recap of all the activities featured at Magma Summit 2023.
We always kick off the summit a day early with an optional cocktail for those who arrive a day early. We hosted a relaxing networking cocktail at Casa Cavia, a beautifully restored mansion in Palermo. It was great to meet new founders and LPs in person, and reconnect with people we’ve been working with for many years.
We kicked off the summit with a full day of conversations, panels and spending time getting to know each other. Nathan Lustig, Magma's Managing Partner, welcomed the attendees to the Magma Summit, providing an overview of what to expect during the event.
Magma’s Alexa Clark moderated the first panel, "The State of Fintech Lending'', with Divibank’s Jaime Taboada, Vexi’s Gabriela Estrada and Zenfi’s Luis Ruben Chavez. They discussed changes in the fintech lending industry, customer behavior, and strategies for navigating the current economic landscape as a fintech lender.
Next up was a conversation on the rise of vertical marketplaces and their disruptive impact on traditional models featuring Yumari’s Osman Mendoza, Parco’s Juan Leaño, Deltax’s Luis Fernando Ortiz, and Justo’s Rodrigo Segal. Each participant provided a distinct perspective on industries, clients (both B2C and B2B), and the challenges faced by these innovative platforms.
Later that day, Magma’s Head of Human Capital Matt Muldavin, led a panel on "How to use coaching to be a top performer and help your team excel". The panel featured valuable insights from Magma LPs and executive coaches Bego Lozano and Antonio Puron. They covered fundamental aspects of coaching, practical applications, benefits, and guidance on finding the ideal coach to meet individual needs.
Before our networking lunch on the beautiful CasaSur rooftop, Nathan Lustig provided insights on the evolving landscape of fundraising, Magma's perspective on these changes, and offered valuable advice to founders and LPs through an "ask me anything" session.
In the afternoon, Magma's team hosted small breakout groups for founders to get to know each other better. Simultaneously, Pedro and Nathan, led an investor-only group discussion on Magma's performance, investment strategies, portfolio construction, and insights into the future of the portfolio and funds, along with a space for LPs to ask questions and get to know each other.
Our summits always end with great food in a beautiful location, and we headed to Puerto Madero to have more amazing Argentine meat and wine at Cauce, a restaurant located on the Puerto Madero waterfront.
The third day started with a conversation led by Magma’s Mak Gutierrez, featuring AnyoneAI’s Agustin Caverzasi and Klay’s Ary Attie. They discussed how AI is changing the world and provided insights on how companies can make great use of AI as early adopters.
Next, Magma’s Senior Analyst Laura Martinez, moderated a panel titled "The Latin America B2B Opportunity" featuring Quansa’s Gonzalo Blanco, Talanta’s David Lloyd, Prometeo’s Ximena Aleman, and Zenki’s Eric Nuñez. They shared experiences and best practices in building B2B companies, offering useful tips on selling to other businesses and sharing lessons they learned as founders.
Afterwards, Magma LP and Inspectorio cofounder Fernando Moncayo, shared his entrepreneurial journey on stage. In a heartfelt chat, Fernando spoke about starting Inspectorio with his brothers, moving to the United States, and their early experiences as entrepreneurs.
Later, Nathan Lustig moderated the summit's final panel, "Solving Latin American Problems with Technology," featuring Divibank’s Rebecca Fischer, Koltin’s Eduardo Ortiz, Vexi’s Gustavo Rojo, and Closer’s Jason Shum. This enriching experience provided insight into the problems companies and industries are solving through technology implementation.
To end the Magma Summit on a high note, we gathered for dinner at Aldo's wine bar and restaurant. Wine masters from an amazing Argentine winery hosted a wine blending competition, which if you know anything about founders and LPs, obviously turned competitive. Teams of 6 people designed their own wine label, created new blends and told a story about their new wineries, their backstories and how they came to design this special Magma Summit blend. Ultimately, "Don Juan," inspired by Magma's own Juan Kontarovsky, won the competition, after which we all spent time together having a great dinner.
After an action packed two days, we always host an optional, laid back BBQ For those who decided to stay longer in Buenos Aires. The food and wine were great, the conversations even better.
We would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who joined us for this incredible experience! We can't wait for the Magma Summit 2024 and to see even more of you there! We hope you had a fantastic time, gained new insights, connected with new people, explored potential collaboration opportunities, and learned more about the diversity of Latin America's startup ecosystem while immersing yourself in Buenos Aires culture.
Updates
As we have grown, our team has become larger and more distributed. For monthly all-hands meetings, our nine-person team comes online from the US, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile, and we depend on Google Cloud for these collaborations.
