Angel Ventures, the Mexican venture capital fund founded in 2008 by Camilo Kejner, Christian Meade Hervert and Hernán Fernández Lamadrid, announced the launch of Apex Company Lab, a new business unit designed to develop and operate its own companies from scratch or by acquiring traditional businesses with the potential for scale. In addition, his first company is Bark & Co, a Dog Wellness Club that opened operations this July 27 in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León.
The initiative is part of AltCore, the Angel Ventures investment program that brings together three lines of business. On the one hand, it maintains its traditional venture capital strategy. On the other hand, it offers private business credit through Aura. Likewise, it now incorporates the development of its own companies through Apex Company Lab. At the same time, the firm assured that it will continue investing in startups in parallel.
A VC who now also builds companies
The thesis behind Apex Company Lab arises after 17 years observing what drives the growth of companies and what factors limit their scalability. In that sense, Hernán Fernández, Managing Partner of Angel Ventures, explained: “We have seen up close what decisions accelerate growth, what errors limit scalability and what signals allow opportunities to be identified before the market recognizes them. Apex Company Lab is born from all that learning.”
In this context, the model targets fragmented traditional businesses, where the lack of capital, professional processes and technological infrastructure impedes growth, while demand already exists. Therefore, instead of waiting for startups to reach the bottom, the team identifies market thesis, recruits operational talent, designs the business model and launches each company with capital and a support network integrated from the beginning.
The pet market as the first testing ground
As a first step, Bark & Co integrates hotel, daycare, training, grooming and spa under a single concept, with a philosophy focused on emotional well-being and stress-free management. Additionally, the company targets a market where 73% of Mexican households live with at least one dog, according to INEGI. Likewise, the specialized services segment has a potential value of between US$1,500 and US$2,500 million in Mexico. As a whole, the pet industry is estimated between US$5.4 billion and US$8.3 billion.
In this regard, José Mario Guillé, Partner at Angel Ventures and head of Apex Company Lab, said: “More and more families recognize that a dog needs physical, emotional, mental and social well-being. This change is driving a new stage of growth in the industry. We believe that the future lies in integrating all these services under the same brand, standard and philosophy of well-being.”
