eVenture Capital Partners, backed by Germany-based retailer Otto Group, and venture firm Redpoint Ventures have partnered backing a Brazil-based firm.
The firm Redpoint eVentures will be led by Yann de Vries, ex-Cisco corporate development, and Anderson Thees, formerly chief executive of Brazil-based search engine Apontador, and will be headquartered in Sao Paulo.
Redpoint eVentures said it would be the "first Silicon Valley venture firm with local presence in Brazil" although other similar investors such as corporate venturing unit Intel Capital have also entered the market.
Redpoint co-founder Jeff Brody said: "We have learned in China that to be truly effective finding opportunities and supporting entrepreneurs, one needs to be established on the ground, rather than flying back and forth every couple of weeks – focus and access are critical to success. Now that we have assembled a great local team in Sao Paulo, we are ready to continue our efforts to scale across the region."
The joint venture’s development took three years and came after "dozens of flights back and forth from Silicon Valley to Brazil" and followed Redpoint backing regional companies, online travel agency Viajanet, start-up holding company Grupo Xango and fashion ecommerce company Shoes4you.
Mathias Schilling, co-founder of eVentures, said: "Whether it is working with a brand like Groupon in their Latin American expansion or helping Russian open source leader NGINX enter the US market, we know first-hand how to put our unique understanding of the global Internet market to work for local entrepreneurs. The Brazilian market represents a very exciting opportunity and we cannot wait to do more work with its growing tech community."
Redpoint eVentures added it was co-hosting the Founders Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the beginning of March, in a network event for Brazil’s top 100 entrepreneurs.