L’ATTITUDE 2021 will once again feature Match-Up, a national stage that matches US Latina/o entrepreneurs with unparalleled visibility, institutional capital, and strategic global partners.
Match-Up is hosted and anchored by L’ATTITUDE VENTURES (LAT VC), a venture fund that invests exclusively in early-stage US Latino entrepreneurs. LAT VC has raised over half of its USD100 million target size from leading institutions who recognise the critical entrepreneurial and economic growth of US Latinos, a USD2.6 trillion cohort that generates one in every four new entrepreneurs. The major investors in LAT VC will be revealed at L’ATTITUDE in San Diego 29 September to 2 October.
In 2019, L’ATTITUDE co-founders, Sol Trujillo and Gary Acosta, along with Kennie Blanco, launched LAT VC to directly address a troubling economic cost to our country: the underfunding of US Latino entrepreneurs. Initialised with early investments from Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Oscar Munoz of United Airlines, LAT VC has built a large-scale gateway of entrepreneurs, strategic partners, and investors focused on catalysing and capturing economic growth through early-stage entrepreneurial success. LAT VC is committed to leading this catalyst with sizeable investments at the Seed to Series A stages ranging from USD500,000 to USD1,500,000.
“This year at Match-Up, LAT VC plans to deploy USD12,500,000 across 20 to 25 elite, early-stage US Latino-led companies,” says Trujillo, LAT VC Partner. “In addition to this capital, the showcase will invite investors to deploy at least USD500,000 each across entrepreneurs. This highly visible and competitive showcase brings out the best of each entrepreneur, attracts long-term investors committed to US Latina/o entrepreneurs, and offers long-lasting visibility across the L’ATTITUDE ecosystem.”
Through their selection process, LAT VC will invite 30 Latino entrepreneurs to San Diego to showcase their companies, in a “demo day” format, in front of a large audience of institutional investors, individual investors, business owners, and industry leaders. Four companies with the strongest business case, market and industry dynamics, and founding teams will compete in a pitch competition for the title of “Latino Startup of the Year.”
