Claudio Schlegel, a Mexican angel investor with 15 years of experience in the Latin American ecosystem, shares the lessons learned since his first investment in 2010 and reveals what he really looks for in founders.
Schlegel began his path as an investor in 2010 with Podemos Progresar, a microfinance company founded by a friend who was returning from studying in the United States. The investment was with conviction but without any notion of what it meant to be an investor.
“It was an investment with a lot of conviction, but really without having a notion of what it meant to be an investor or to invest in a check or the return. I believed in the vision it brought, in the product, in what could be achieved,” declares Schlegel.
What do you look for in Latin American founders?
Unlike the United States, where there is already a mature venture capital culture and capital is not so scarce, Schlegel explains that Latin American founders need to know how to build companies differently. It’s not about being conservative, but about being able to survive when bad times come.
-What are you looking for in founders in regions where capital is scarce?
“Many of the companies that I have seen that cannot move forward have generally not been due to an issue with the founders. There are super talented people, but when they start to run out of money they do not have the ability to raise a round as quickly as necessary to continue iterating or continue finding this path that allows them to take the next step.”
For him, founders must be great executors capable of building companies that can jump between highly scalable processes and solid foundations. When the capital begins to dry up, they must have a strategy to lower the burn and continue floating until the next step is built.
The lessons of the 2021 boom
Schlegel experienced the investment boom in 2021 up close and recognizes that one of his biggest lessons was FOMO (fear of missing out). He entered companies that, due to the same boom, had valuations well above what the reality of Latin America allowed.
-What was the biggest lesson of the boom?
“I think the most important thing is to understand: 1. The fundamentals of the company, what product or service is building value so that it can be exchanged for money with customers. 2. What is the valuation? That will be very determining for the following rounds whether or not someone else will want to enter.”
The investor is clear about the consequences: «I see it as very difficult for companies here in Latin America to have valuations or exits of more than 1 billion dollars. If that is your thesis and you enter a company that is already worth 200 or 300 million dollars because there is a boom, it will be difficult that if such high expectations are not met, you as an investor can recover that money.”
Many fintechs emerged quickly with high valuations during that period, but ended up not surviving. It was not due to lack of capital, but because the fundamentals were not solid from the beginning.
Is it worth betting on AI in 2026?
On the controversy of whether there is an artificial intelligence bubble, Schlegel is pragmatic and raises a key question.
“How well do you as an investor understand artificial intelligence in the background to be able to make decisions in which artificial intelligence companies to really invest in?”
His approach is different: “In my case, not being a specialist in artificial intelligence, I rather understand how these companies that I am betting on can benefit from artificial intelligence to make a more efficient, more effective, lower-cost product. But they are not artificial intelligence companies.”
Schlegel mentions that Ben Horowitz, in a talk organized by the government of Mexico City, explained that to generate companies like ChatGPT, initial investments need to be one or two billion dollars. “Something like this can hardly arise in Latin America. That does not mean that there are not companies that can benefit from artificial intelligence to build fairly solid products,” he declared.
Mexico as a hub and the importance of timing
Schlegel invests in pre-seed and seed stages in Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Peru. For him, Mexico is the market where practically all entrepreneurs want to land due to its geographical location and size.
-Is Mexico ready for the leap into HealthTech?
“You can’t wait for the ecosystem to be mature to start a company because then you’re already late. It’s also a little bit along the same line of thinking that I have when I buy equity shares: when a stock is already in all the media, it’s already too late because the upside has already been taken by those who did it and saw it before.”
The true value of the investor
For Schlegel, what distinguishes a good investor is the value they add beyond capital. Invest early, in pre-seed and seed, where you can add more value by helping to build the go-to-market strategy and presenting the network of potential clients, suppliers and funds.
“When you invest, I think one of the main things that should happen is that when there is a problem, you as an investor have the ability to bet on this company and help them get out in some way. If you invest just by writing a check and they face a problem that you do not understand because it is not in a related industry, it is betting that it will be solved by magic.”
Predictions for 2026
The ecosystem enters a stage of maturity where Mexico consolidates itself as the undisputed magnet of the region, driven by the rise of nearshoring and a Fintech industry that leads growth in Latin America.
While countries like Colombia and Peru go through electoral processes that could generate caution in local investment, the brightest founders of those markets (and innovation centers like Argentina and Costa Rica) will see expansion into Mexico as their best strategy for resilience and scalability.
Your job will be to anticipate this movement, identifying talent from its earliest stages in their countries of origin to provide them with a strategic soft landing, taking advantage of the fact that 2026 will be the year in which Artificial Intelligence will go from promises to real operational efficiency in businesses in the region.
