Artificio is building a deeptech startup in Peru. They're raising $7M. Its founder went to Harvard and MIT. Yet, fundraising isn't a piece of cake. They're stuck between two dilemmas. Here's how co-founder Arturo Deza (the Harvard/MIT one) explained it to The Realistic Optimist: "Artificio is an outsider for both LATAM VCs and for American VCs, but for two different reasons. For LATAM VCs, we’re a rare occurrence of a local deeptech startup. They don’t have many benchmarks to point to, and are thus frisky about investing. They don’t know how to value us. Things would be easier if we were doing food-delivery, in which case we could both point to Rappi and call it a day. Of course, Rappi is a spectacular company. But we’re building something very different. For American VCs, we’re a rare occurrence of a non-San Francisco based company building extremely advanced technology. To American VCs, if you’re not based in San Francisco, it means you lack ambition. Many don’t understand that the world has changed, and that Artificio is five steps ahead. We’re playing “4D Chess”. We are not the only ones crazy enough to do this: in other industries, many founders have decided to build outside of the US while still taking US-based VC funding (Mistral AI in France, NotCo in Chile…). They know that post-pandemic, newer markets and opportunities are emerging outside the US that no one else is seizing." Link to Arturo's full Realistic Optimist interview in the comments.
Laura Person
2w
That’s an interesting insight and aligns perfectly with what I observed during my semester abroad in Peru as part of an MBA program.
Congrats Arturo! Also a Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería successful graduate. From Peru to the world!! 🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪
Great news for Artificio! Congrats Arturo Deza and your team 👏
Mison Barua
3w
MANY THANKS for sharing!
Excelente segmentación
Founder, The Realistic Optimist
3whttps://www.realisticoptimist.io/artificio-powering-the-self-driving-vehicle-gold-rush-from-peru/