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The Power of Entrepreneurship
Álvaro Rodríguez (MBA 1995) cofounded the largest venture capital firm in Mexico, which is focused on companies that serve the country’s growing middle class. He is also a recipient of the 2019 HBS Alumni Achievement Award. In this interview he talks about the critical need in Mexico for economic opportunity for all citizens.
“IGNIA is a venture capital firm. Today we're the largest VC firm in Mexico. We focus on investing in businesses in Mexico that serve the emerging middle class or businesses outside of Mexico that want to come into Mexico also to serve the emerging middle class. I started IGNIA because of the power of entrepreneurship to really bring change into an economy, into a country, into a business community.
“Especially in a country like this, the disparities are so big. We have easy access to quality education, quality housing, quality financial services, quality everything. When you go to the slums of Mexico, they don't have that privilege. And it's a complete market failure. So it is two parts: It's access to better products and services in the emerging middle class and entrepreneurship as a mechanism to achieve that and to create change in Mexico.
“The reason why we make these investments is, yes, because we think you can have tremendous positive impact, but [also] because we think it's a huge business opportunity. And the potential for returns by doing that are huge. We've been able to prove that. We've proved that at significant scale. There's going to be much more capital going to that segment of the population, which will only help bring in better products and services.”
(Published July 2019)
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