Sebastián Spena is head of corporate venturing at Galicia Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Banco Galicia, an Argentina-based private bank and subsidiary of financial services holding company Grupo Financiero Galicia.
He began his career at Galicia two years ago leading the company’s corporate development division that, among other things, successfully led the acquisition of Grupo Sura in Argentina, a Colombian financial services company, in 2023. During 2022, he led the design, build and launch of Galicia Ventures.
“Spena began his career at Galcia two years ago leading the company’s corporate development division.”
Before joining Banco Galicia, Spena spent more than 10 years at the UK-based professional services firm EY as a business and strategy leader consultant, mainly focused in helping global, regional and national companies in new businesses, M&A, value maximisation and strategic initiatives in multicultural projects across Latin America.
Spena also spent two years as retail financial and business leader advisor for Raízen Argentina, an integrated energy company, as well as a year as a finance manager at software developer BairesDev, where he led two M&A projects and worked on writing contracts and negotiations.
Spena was on the panel for Glocal, an agrifood tech accelerator and investment fund in 2023. The programme connects startups with experts and mentors in the agriculture sector.
Galicia Ventures invests up to $500,000 in pre-seed to series A startups operating in Latin America in verticals such as fintech, agtech, insurtech and B2B technology sectors, with a focus on Web 3.0, crypto and blockchain. The firm also focuses on open innovation through strategic partnerships and company entrepreneurships acceleration programmes. Notable investments include Moova, Eiwa and Fudo.
Spena has a master’s degree in computer programming and data science from Universidad Austral and a master’s degree in finance from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
See the full list of GCV Emerging Leaders for 2024 here.