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We are The Venture Studio for Latin America

Polymath is the pioneer of the Venture Studio model in Latin America, bridging the talent and capital gap of the region to solve the most complex challenges for the middle-class.

<h3>We are a group of entrepreneurs building human-centered companies to empower the middle-class of Latin America</h3>

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We surface large unmet needs within the middle class, and develop (through testing and iterating) new venture concepts customers love, backed by powerful business models. We call this 13-week human-centered design process Ideation.

Design the company

A company is only as strong as its leadership team. We build from within and recruit exceptional regional and international talent and assemble powerful founding teams who make the venture concept their own - and with our support bring it to life.

Convene the founders

We work full-time alongside the founding team for the first crucial years, utilizing lean experimentation and a methodical, learning mindset to build, launch and grow the concept into an operating and scalable business. 

Accelerate the business

We provide the initial startup funding to get the business launched and operating, and we work to bring together the right networks of local and international investors to continuously raise capital for growth.

Assemble the capital

Once the venture finds product-market fit, we continue to advise and support at the strategic level. Our support focuses on business strategy, talent acquisition, growth, and fundraising. 

Support the Venture

<h3>We take a methodology-driven approach to building &amp; scaling companies from scratch</h3>

Elenas

Aflore

Ropstar

Autolab

Tani

Our Ventures

The venture studio model keeps growing in the world and Latin America. It doesn’t come as a surprise for the venture capital ecosystem. Studios have been getting a lot of attention since <a href="https://www.idealab.com/">Idealab</a> first started to implement this model back in 1996It seems like the entire world has changed since then. Today there are around 560 Venture Studios in the world, according to<a href="http://gan-7000682.hs-sites.com/disrupting-venture-landscape-white-paper"> GSSN</a>.There are many ways to call this Asset Class. Some call themselves Startup Studios, Company Builders, Venture Capital Studios, Venture Builders, etc…The point is that we all share the particular goal of changing the game on how to build and scale companies from scratch. That’s something every <a href="https://polymathv.com/venture-studio-model">Venture Studio</a> can agree on, even when we all do it in different ways.That “way” of doing things is what we have synthesized in our methodological approach to company building. You can see the effects of the model by looking at how rapidly it has grown in the past few years.The growth rate goes up to 625% in the last seven years, getting to a point where there is at least one Venture Studio in each region of the world.Polymath is the <a href="https://polymathv.com/venture-studio-model">Venture Studio for Latin America</a>. In the last 9 years, we have focused our work on ideating, validating, and scaling companies to empower the middle-class of LATAM.As we enter a new era of entrepreneurship in Latin America with Venture Capital growing more than 2X during 2021, we keep focusing our efforts on using human-centered design to create technologies and business models that solve the biggest and more urgent problems of a segment that has been underserved by business: The middle-class.Latin America craves a social and economic boost. Real social and economic development will come from efficient and vibrant solutions designed to enable and empower the middle class.We believe the Venture Studio model is the right way to achieve that breaking-through moment in the ecosystem for the region, we are convinced it is.Here are 6 reasons to believe in the Venture Studio Model.<h2>1. Methodology goes first</h2>Over nine years building companies leveraging the Venture Studio Model has helped us to develop a methodology that reflects our founders, EIRs, and talent<a href="https://polymathv.com/polymath-ventures-lessons/"> learnings in the company building process.</a>We learned from our failures and successes and now we have a methodological approach to understanding a market’s needs and developing scalable digital solutions.Following this approach, we have explored over 200 business concepts which have led us to launch 11 companies into the market.<a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1CvgwUDFveqf-PD3gD-4RTpnAy3qa2q2jwkVRkOeUc9Y/edit?usp=drive%5Fweb">Download our company building playbook to learn more about our process.</a><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:54.82%;"><img src="/uploads/Company_Building_8940e0f2a3.png"><figcaption>Company Building Methodology</figcaption></figure><h2>2. Talented and diverse teams across the Studio</h2>People are an important part of what we do. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for talented, risk-taker and a little bit crazy individuals that share our view of purpose and transformation for the region.Having more than 500 collaborators across the group is also a great competitive advantage, giving us the diverse background necessary to address complex problems from different perspectives and areas of expertise.Our<a href="https://polymathv.com/the-road-to-building-a-winning-startup-culture/"> culture and way of working</a> allows structured learnings and encourages know-how transfer within the group and with external investors, not to count our alumni network, which is all around the globe and working across industries, normally maintaining contact with us.<h2>3. Proven track record</h2>It’s not the same to invest in first-time or even experienced entrepreneurs as it is to do it in a group of people that systematically create companies for a living.Up until now, we have 3 operating ventures that have reached Product-Market-Fit and 2 more on their way there. Creating a portfolio that has risen USD 45M from external investors.Building for emerging markets requires a completely different approach to company building and scaling. What we have achieved up until now is only the beginning of our learning journey.<h2>4. Partnership with great entrepreneurs</h2>A Venture Studio is meant to be a perfect co-founder to proven and successful entrepreneurs. This is one of the main differences we encounter when comparing our business model with accelerators or VCs.We are looking for the TOP entrepreneurial talent who are enthusiastic to transform the middle-class in Latin America.This is a matter of both purpose and skills, something that’s not easy to find, but it’s a formula that has proven to be a huge success for Venture Studios (and Polymath).All this provides an unmatched learning (and life) experience both for them, us and the people we are impacting.<h2>5. Strong leadership and advisory</h2>Our founders,<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wenyi-cai-5a99876/"> Weny Cai</a> and<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-fern%C3%A1ndez-de-la-pradilla-a786711/?originalSubdomain=co"> Carlos Fernandez de la Pradilla</a> both come from strong business experience and are deeply committed to the purpose of transforming the region of LATAM.Over the years we have also created and strengthened a top<a href="https://polymathv.com/advisors-2/"> advisory board</a> composed of friends, investors, and business leaders internationally renowned.Combining that with the context of opportunity the region is going through right now and the methodological approach to business we have developed, we feel more confident to do the work and continue to grow our expertise as well as our connections to be more impactful and successful within our portfolio.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:52.41%;"><img src="/uploads/Strong_Leadership_0a96e45a2d.png"><figcaption>Wenyi Cai and Carlos F. de la Pradilla &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><h2>6. Higher success rate.</h2>In general, the Venture Studio Model achieves better success rates than other similar approaches to entrepreneurship.For example Studios around the world are getting a 34% exit rate VS 21% for Accelerators and 19% for the average venture industry.But it doesn’t all come down to exit, we are giving higher investor returns too. The average in the venture industry is 21%, but when we look at studios it goes all up to 55%.Today, taking into account our seed investment we are offering up to 32% IRR over our portfolio in which 32 investors have already believed in, including international funds like<a href="https://www.bullpencap.com/"> Bullpen</a>,<a href="https://www.cendanacapital.com/"> Cendana</a>,<a href="https://fjlabs.com/"> FJ Labs</a>, and more.<h2>To summarize</h2><ul><li>Entrepreneurship is about risk.</li><li>The Venture Studio model aims to reduce that risk and maximize the learnings.</li><li>Studios make sense within the venture ecosystem. This model is even more relevant in emerging markets where uncertainty is higher and a deep understanding of context and people is necessary.</li><li>Polymath Ventures builds companies to address the problems of an emerging middle-class with huge opportunities for growth and innovation.</li></ul>&nbsp;

6 reasons to believe in the Venture Studio Model

Polymath Ventures was founded on an audacious hypothesis: that building tech companies intentionally designed for the emerging middle-class could be a catalyst to solve the structural inequality and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle%5Fincome%5Ftrap">middle-income trap</a> that has plagued Latin America. Nine years into the journey, we have built important proof points validating this hypothesis, with portfolio companies like <a href="https://www.venturecapitaljournal.com/aflore-grabs-6-6m/">Aflore</a>, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/04/elenas-series-a/">Elenas</a>, and <a href="https://polymathv.com/ventures/autolab/">Autolab</a> jointly impacting millions of people in the region already. It took time and grit to acquire the capabilities to consistently build great companies, with many lessons learned along the way.With the LatAm middle-class <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/06/24/pandemic-crisis-fuels-decline-of-middle-class-LAC">pummeled by the pandemic</a> — 5M people have already slipped from the middle class, showing the vulnerabilities of the gains made in the last decades — the mission of Polymath Ventures is more relevant than ever.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:64.47%;"><img src="/uploads/Copy_of_Wenyi_01_2_96430463c9.jpg"><figcaption>Wenyi Cai - CEO &amp; Co-Founder Polymath Ventures</figcaption></figure><blockquote>Our commitment is to leverage the platform and talent base we have built, to even more courageously attack the core issues, like education, productivity, and financial access, that hold back the potential of the emerging middle class, and of the region.&nbsp;</blockquote><h2>Lessons learned</h2><h4>#1 Building a movement requires peers</h4>We approached building Polymath Ventures from first-principles thinking. If the issue of the middle-income trap came from the productivity of informal and small firms, then let’s design solutions that systematically increased their productivity; over time, we realized that business models like managed marketplaces were especially well-suited for this challenge. If the issue is the lack of experienced entrepreneurial talent, then let’s create a venture-building backbone that partners with and trains entrepreneurs. If there is very limited early-stage capital, then let’s fund the early rounds ourselves.The benefit of first-principles thinking is that it allows you not to shy away from very complex and difficult problems, and helps you break them down into testable and actionable steps. The downside is that you are the pioneer, often along multiple fronts, which is a challenging and potentially even fatal setup. Looking back, we set out to build scalable ventures in LatAm before all the conditions were ready: middle-class smartphone adoption did not massively take off until after 2016, VC capital only started flooding the region in the last three years, and experienced startup talent remains limited today.Our willingness to jump into the game gave us many years to iterate and learn what works and what doesn’t work. But the bumpiness of the journey also shows the limitations of tinkering away like a mad scientist in your own lab. Not taking away from the deep and even unique insights Polymath has developed about our target demographic and the business models that match their needs, we really gained momentum as more allies and peers appeared. For example:<ul><li>Other companies solving problems along the value chain our ventures operated in (e.g. logistics, fintech infrastructure), so we didn’t have to build everything ourselves</li><li>The 600+ strong global movement of venture studios, showing that we were not crazy in building from scratch</li><li>The growing universe of venture capital (especially international ones entering LatAm), so that there is enough firepower to propel great products and teams to scale.</li></ul>Although venture studio models have certain biases towards being inward-looking, it is critical that we understand we need all the allies and peers we can get to tackle the audacious problem that launched us on our journey.<h4>#2 Human-centered companies build resilience</h4>Polymath’s Ventures design methodology is led by Human-Centered Design. This imbeds user-centered orientation into the DNA of our ventures, which we believe gives them an important competitive advantage. A different manifestation of this is what I would call “Human-Centered Companies”.What has given Polymath Ventures a powerful resilience over our long and windy journey is our philosophy and approach to talent. We understand that people are complex and good. That means few are driven by singular pursuits of money and ego for long. Most talented people seek challenge, mentorship, meaning, friendship, and a richness of life. Therefore, an organization that can weave a delightfully entangled ecosystem for talented people to interact and flourish creates enormous value for each person and the company.We are lucky to have been around enough now to see people leave and then rejoin, evolve from analysts at Polymath to co-founders of our ventures, form lasting friendships even as they disburse around the world in their next pursuits. These life-long relationships are the result of shared values and the formative experience of trying to do something very hard together.Throughout the pandemic crisis, we have lived the results of our approach: every single person in the company decided to sacrifice salary temporarily so that we could keep everyone while cutting burn; alumni reached out to contribute money and work; and despite very difficult times and aggressive external poaching, we kept almost everyone together. As our outlook recovered in the last trimester of 2020, we were able to hire amazing talent and train them up quickly because of the excellence and coherence of the existing team. This type of resilience is no longer dependent just on the grit of founders, it is now deeply rooted in the organization, and in an even broader ecosystem of support, including alumni, advisors, investors, and friends.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:51.05%;"><img src="/uploads/IMG_0824_2480f0512c.jpg"><figcaption>Polymath Ventures Team</figcaption></figure><h2>Next horizons</h2>Looking forward, the internal and external conditions are ripe for us to build and scale innovative and impactful companies in Latin America. The region has developed more mature conditions to build new technological solutions, the middle-class is rapidly driving the adoption of digital solutions, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem is flourishing thanks to the abundant investments led by global VC investors.Our commitment to the mission of serving the emerging middle class has only been reinforced by all the pain wrought by the pandemic. However, we see not only resilience at the Polymath level, but we continuously derive inspiration from the motivations and grit of the tens of thousands of people who work as financial advisors, sellers, mechanics, and doctors in our businesses.At Polymath Ventures, we believe our path to achieving our mission is not by conquering, but rather impacting the hearts and minds of all that engage with us. We believe we can transform how Latin America approaches innovation with every interaction, so our promise going forward is to more readily share our learnings and values with the wider ecosystem.Our plan is to continue building transformational and scalable businesses. For us, it is not about how many ventures we build, but the impact of each new venture we design, validate and scale. Our mandate is to create impact through disruption, building for a more equal and prosperous Latin America.

Lessons learned from our CEO, Wenyi Cai

Building a <a href="https://polymathv.com/about/">Venture Studio</a> with the right capabilities to systematically build new startups requires, among other things, access to capital. Fundraising in Latin America has its own challenges and characteristics and after nine years doing it, we have acquired a massive amount of learnings that we believe are worth sharing.We met with our co-founder and CFO, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-fern%C3%A1ndez-de-la-pradilla-a786711/">Carlos Fernandez de la Pradilla</a> to talk about our journey, the key learnings and the most valuable lessons other founders can elevate when fundraising in Latin America.<h2>How did we start?</h2>In the early days, around June of 2012, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wenyi-cai-5a99876/">Wenyi</a> was leading the conception and structure of Polymath as a Venture Studio. As a foreign entering a new market her first move was to provide the seed capital to kick off the journey. Instead of fundraising from external sources in an unknown market, she wanted to focus on the creation of what we called Labs1.Labs 1 was our <a href="https://polymathv.com/seeds/transportation/">first seed</a> vehicle, which was focused on researching the transportation ecosystem in Colombia. At the time, a team of five, 2 designers, 2 business people, and an engineer observed urban mobility behaviors of real users in their daily lives. This research allowed us to surfaced complex market insights and exciting areas of opportunity.From smart bus stops to personal security networks, the team iterated and tested their ideas in the field until one concept, a safer taxi, began to take real action. By early Q3 of 2012, we had our first concept on the ground, Taximo, a data-driven vehicle leasing platform for Latin America’s ride-sharing market. We started fundraising with friends and family and then started our first approach with angel investors in LatAm.<h2>What is our fundraising strategy?</h2>Our fundraising strategy has two levels of complexity, on one hand, early-stage fundraising in Latin America has its own dynamics, then we need to consider that fundraising for Ventures is very different than doing it for a Venture Studio, no matter the region.The value proposition of these structures is dramatically different. Venture Investors are usually big corporations, family offices, and VCs, which are mainly looking for economic returns, knowledge, and business synergies due to their structures. The venture’s structure is clear when considering disinvestment objectives and timelines. In this sense, the fundraising strategy for the ventures of our portfolio aligns with the expectations of the market. We build high-growth startups that can provide the desired results.On the other hand, our value proposition as a Venture Studio mainly focuses on knowledge, learnings, and synergies, and lastly on returns. We know it is a long-term investment, primarily because we are not looking to sell in short periods of time, and that does not necessarily match with the expectations of the more traditional institutional investors.As a Venture Studio, we operate as a holding company that designs ventures from scratch. We leverage our entrepreneurial methodology, the right talent, our deep knowledge in the emerging middle-class, and the acquired expertise after nine years of building. This scheme allows investors to unlock richer partnerships, reduce their risk through a diversified portfolio, and access a broader network of talent, advisors, and experts.The evolution of our fundraising strategy for the Venture Studio considers a stronger relationship with Corporations looking to enter the digital native ecosystem along with proven entrepreneurs. This relationship does not necessarily reflect on direct investment, but it clearly unlocks valuable partnerships focused on co-building along with them.Our long-term strategy as a Venture Studio led us to build an ever-green funding structure, different than closed-end funds, which allow us to eliminate any predefined exit deadlines and better tackle the volatility of Latin America.<h2>Biggest wins fundraising in Latin America</h2>After nine years and $41M of capital raised, we feel very proud of our results. First of all, as a portfolio, we have been able to raise relevant amounts both for capital and debt, which is truly significant considering the investment behavior in Latin America (without Brasil) and the nature of our structure which at the time was relatively unknown. This amount is a reflection of our work and the trust of our investors, who believe in the power of building for Latin America.Beyond our track record, we feel particularly proud of being part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem acceleration in the region; enabling the arrival of renowned international investors, 60% of our capital comes from outside Latin America, and building a stronger bridge of collaboration between local entrepreneurs, corporations, and family offices looking to extend their presence in the region.Lastly, I would like to highlight the work we have been doing to bring methodologies and formality to the fundraising exercise. It is no doubt that within the startup ecosystem there is a gap between ideas and methodologies. In fact, one of the key reasons for startup failure is the lack of proper research before launch and the lack of formal tools to support pivots and achieve product-market fit.Amongst this, we made sure that our methodology covered these gaps. We have built an entrepreneurial toolkit that ensures proper research in the initial stages, we have also designed a validation stage that ensures we prove desirability and viability. Lastly, our studio structure allows supporting the designed ventures in the most advanced stages of the process.This ensures they have the right tools to cover potential pivots, continue applying internal methodologies to better understand the business, and access a platform of experts, resources, and stakeholders.<h2>Fundraising in Latin America: Our advice</h2><ul><li>Fundraising is an ultramarathon, not a sprint. We have experienced 38 rounds of financing, over 2K pitchings, 6K investor leads, so you must know this is an ongoing process that requires continuous preparation and follow-up.</li><li>Fundraising is a fundamental skill of a startup CEO. As a Venture Studio that recruits founders, we always have this component in mind.</li><li>Fundraising requires planning. Consider leaving some margin in your cash flow, and always have at least one additional plan.</li><li>Manage a disciplined process. Start by building your investment thesis, which will help you identify your target leads and qualify them. Once you have that structure, build your timelines to follow up and always consider that it’s not closed until the money is in the bank.</li><li>Each round is different. When you are raising Series Seed, you must prove that you have identified and articulated the problem and a good team. When you move forward to Series A, Investors are looking for Product plus Market Fit. Then Series B is all about scalability.</li><li>Always be honest. Good businesses do not need to be over-embellished. If you have built something differential, with a great team and a clear growth plan, feel confident you are starting with the right foot.</li><li>Nothing beats building a good business. So make sure you focus on your building methodology. This will support the first fundraising stages when you need to prove the value of your concept.</li></ul>

Fundraising in Latin America: Our Journey

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The Working Women Seed deployed in 2013, learned about the lives and experiences of working women through the mothers, daughters, sisters, professionals, caregivers, and retirees that lived with them. They learned about the expectations put on “guerreras” (female warriors!), as they referred to themselves, as they worked to balance family, relationships, and career.

Insights from Research:

The first iteration of this seed led us to build around a strong sense of guilt from Moms (and dads) when they have to be away from their children, yet there was no willingness to pay. During the second one, we switched to providing online psychological services that resulted in great engagement but no WTP. Constant interaction with users resulted in the realization that Beauty had a big spend of pocket and that it was the way that society and working mothers had allowed them to take care of themselves.

Our approach

Elenas is modernizing and automating the direct sales model, taking the good parts of the traditional system–part-time work and trust-based purchases–and combining them with e-commerce. Now, women, or "embajadoras" can sell a wide variety of products from their own homes, they decide what to sell and how much they want to mark the price up, and Facebook, while Elenas manages the back-end support for product sourcing, delivery, and payment collection.

Business Model: 

As we learned the significance of beauty products/services for working mothers and the best mechanisms to activate sellers into the platform, we first experimented with content and a limited portfolio of products, yet this result in poor results.

Initial Challenges:

Elenas's first two years have been key to achieve Product-Market-Fit, the frequency and speed of iterations and learnings increased our success chances. The company has unlocked major milestones and is headed to achieve incredible results:<ul><li>Launched at the <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/event/techcrunch-startup-battlefield-latin-america-2018">TechCrunch Startup Battlefield</a></li><li>Founders Zach Oschin and Thomas Harsch recognized in the top 30 founders of the country in 2020</li><li>Forbes Top 100 digital startups in Colombia</li><li>+250 distributors and brands</li><li>Closed a Series A round for US$6M in March of 2021</li><li>+90 team members in Colombia and Mexico</li></ul>

The Venture Today:

Elenas will continue its growth path in Colombia while growing its product portfolio and improving the income opportunities for thousands of women that are now opening their own endeavors thanks to the platform. After the most recent fundraising news, the team is now planning its international expansion, starting with the launch of its platform in Mexico by May of 2021.

What the future holds:

Leadership

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During the Financial Services Ideation, our team discovered a striking cultural trend. They observed that while over 65% of the Colombian population does not engage with commercial banks, almost all interview participants received informal financial advice and services through trusted people or role models within their social circles.

Insights from Research

After understanding the role and motivations of informal financial advisors, the team established a business concept anchored on this recurring personality within middle-class communities in Colombia: the community advisor. It became clear that human relationships built upon trust were key to offer tailored financial services for our demographic.

Aflore is a direct sales network for financial services for those neglected the formal banking sector. It recruits trusted advisors within middle-income communities, and mobilizes them with training, digital tools, and the appropriate financial products, loans and insurance, to serve the financial needs of their trusted network.

Business Model:

Aflore has achieved important milestones and recognition for its business<ul><li>Over 23,000 disbursed loans</li><li>Tech platform with 95% of loan applications through digital channels</li><li>Secured US$10m of debt from Accial Capital in September 2020</li><li>Closed a pre-series B round of US$6.6m in February 2021</li><li>Forbes Top 100 digital startups in Colombia</li><li>Expanded their portfolio to include non-lending products with nationwide partners such as Sura, HDI, and R5.</li><li>Their core team has grown to +100 members</li></ul>

The Venture Today: 

Aflore aims to become the main financial platform for the emerging middle-class in Latin America. With a growing pool of active financial advisors, an increasingly diversified product portfolio, and rapid adoption of its digital journey, Aflore will scale its model of providing the unbanked and underbanked of the region with financial solutions designed for them.

What the future holds: 

Want to know more about Aflore?

The first challenge was to understand the buying behavior of Gen Z, which unlocked learnings about the relevance this segment has on the growth of second-hand apparel shopping, with conscious and savvy shoppers being the fastest growing segments. At the same time, global leading retailers are turning to resale as a way to engage with this demographic.

Starting with the above insights, we started the validation phase with four concepts that responded to the biggest pain points and expectations of both, buyers and sellers. Through experimentation, we understood that sellers are looking to increase their sales while decreasing operational hassles while buyers need to browse and discover curated pieces.

Ropstar is redefining what selling and shopping second-hand means, thanks to its mobile-first and highly curated approach. Now, sellers can grow their business, reduce the operational hassle and help them make informed and data-driven decisions, while buyers have a fun and easy experience, in which they can discover unique items, support the planet and elevate the work of local entrepreneurs.

Business Model

Ropstar was launched in April 2021 with exciting progress in a market full of opportunities:&nbsp;<ul><li>Onboarded Entrepreneurs in Residence, Raphael Kromer and CMO Martín Jara.</li><li>Early-stage team of +10 people with expertise in Tech, Product, Sales, and Marketing.</li><li>Mentorship from Damian Alcedo, Senior Director at Polymath Ventures with over 15 years of experience with tech companies.</li><li>Launch of 2.0 digital marketplace.</li><li>+13.000 Instagram followers.&nbsp;</li></ul>

The research started on the labor market in Latin America to understand the real status of informality and unemployment. Informality was present in a variety of sectors, including the auto repair market, in which today is concentrated the majority of transactions, however, they do not have the tools or knowledge to grow, impacting its service, quality, and overall supply chain.

Considering the relevance of this industry in the region and the impact it has on the emerging-middle-class, we took on the challenge to create a chain of car centers providing quality, growth opportunities for the shop owners and operators that are aiming to secure social and economic development for them and their families.

Our Approach

Autolab is redefining a traditional industry by providing the best value proposition in the market. Now, shop owners are empowered thanks to the professionalization of their independent businesses and car owners are having a transparent, interactive, and fully digital experience.

Autolab has achieved product-market-fit in Colombia, securing outstanding metrics of satisfaction and retention:<ul><li>94% of retention from Repair Shops</li><li>5-star rating from 90% of our client base</li><li>700% Increase in profit for shops in our network</li><li>7x growth of their shop network since July of 2020</li><li>Strong leadership team with combined expertise in product, tech, and operations</li></ul>

The Venture Today

Autolabs’ adoption in the Colombian market plus the expertise of the founding team building and evolving this solution, unlock expansion opportunities for Latinamerican markets experiencing similar challenges. The company has already started its expansion to <a href="https://autolab.mx/?utm_source=referral_seo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=polymathv_1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mexico where they initiated operations in 2021</a>. &nbsp;In the upcoming 2 years, the company will continue to expand to Peru, and Brazil, increasing its presence to over 20 cities and its network to 450 shops.

What the future holds

When it comes to healthcare for the middle class in Latam, our team discovered there are clear gaps in what both the formal and informal systems offer to patients when they need a medical procedure: the public system is slow and painful to navigate, while the private one can be costly and not always transparent.

We identified nine core insights that determined the path of concepting and prototyping. The common pattern between these nine insights was around access. Patients were concerned about their limitations in the current healthcare system; lack of coverage, massive delays to secure appointments, and payment limitations. &nbsp;

Our approach:

Tani is a managed marketplace of medical procedures that provides patients in the middle class with quality surgeons, price transparency, financial accessibility and most importantly continuous support in their health journey. On the other hand, Tani helps surgeons, especially emerging ones, reduce their administrative load, optimize their work and build a strong reputation.

Want to know more about Tani?&nbsp;

We are The Venture Studio for Latin America

9

Years of experience

50K+

New income sources created

US$50M+

Capital raised

We are a group of entrepreneurs building human-centered companies to empower the middle-class of Latin America

We take a methodology-driven approach to building & scaling companies from scratch

Design
the company

Convene
the founders

Accelerate
the business

Assemble
the capital

Support
the Venture

Our Ventures

Elenas

Aflore

Ropstar

Autolab

Tani

6 reasons to believe in the Venture Studio Model

Lessons learned from our CEO, Wenyi Cai

Fundraising in Latin America: Our Journey

Engage with Us
If you would like to

9

Years of experience

50K+

New income sources created

US$50M+

Capital raised

We are a group of entrepreneurs building human-centered companies to empower the middle-class of Latin America

We take a methodology-driven approach to building & scaling companies from scratch

Designthe company

Convenethe founders

Acceleratethe business

Assemblethe capital

Supportthe Venture

Our Ventures

Elenas

Aflore

Ropstar

Autolab

Tani

6 reasons to believe in the Venture Studio Model

Lessons learned from our CEO, Wenyi Cai

Fundraising in Latin America: Our Journey

Engage with UsIf you would like to

Design
the company

Convene
the founders

Accelerate
the business

Assemble
the capital

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