Based in Rio-de-Janeiro, Brazil, Fuse Capital, a leading investment and strategic equity management firm, has recently announced that it has raised its first overseas fund for investors looking for long-term, but high-risk investment opportunities.
Fuse Capital, a company established by experienced venture capitalist (VCs) and business owners, was established in November 2019. Since then, its vision is to aid Brazilian family offices after analyzing potential investments in high-potential start-ups and, sometimes, its willingness to invest along with them, according to Joao Zecchin, one of the co-founders of Fuse Capital.
By the end of 2020, the company aims to reach as much as USD 25 million in the capital for the fund. Fuse Capital made sure that it has planned to establish a local Brazilian fund by next year that will be denominated in reais. Zecchin has also claimed that the fund will stick to or maintain the best environmental practices.
The first fund by Fuse Capital was invented to look upon several emerging technologies. The Brazilian division of Fligoo, a San Francisco-based firm currently focusing on big data, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI), can be a part of the fund allocation. Another Brazilian firm named Pink, which works to offer communication tools to SMEs, might also be present in the fund list.
The funds may be invested in debt provided by Mexico-based credit card firms. However, the management of Fuse Capital has not revealed the company’s name.
A release stated Fuse was founded by veteran traders with experience investing in private equity for more than ten years. The founder’s list includes a former XP analyst, Guilherme Hug, and business executives Alexis Terrin and Joao Zecchin.
Guilherme Hug was of the view: “We had some success investing our own money, so we received an initial investment from a family office, and we are opening a fund for more clients.”
Another partner named Dan Yamamura, who worked at GP Investimentos, a firm established by billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann, said, “I wanted to go back to the private equity environment now that the business is booming in Brazil.”
An early return of 25% is what Fuse Capital Fund I is expecting. The company claims that in an initial investment of almost ten years, investors may be able to recover their initial assets. The fund is also going to be a part of equity as well as debts of start-ups. Zecchin also mentioned that Fuse plans to develop an “ecosystem of startups in Rio.”
To this, Guilherme added: “Wealthy entrepreneurs in a large company need to connect to venture capital to reinvent themselves, to understand the future, new technologies.”
He also expressed that since the company was founded, Fuse has looked closely at approximately 200 early-stage ventures or start-ups.
