WIND Ventures is a Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) that specializes in the new mobility, energy, and retail sectors. As a subsidiary of the Chilean company COPEC, WIND Ventures aims to maintain its status as leading customer service provider and enter into the large customer base and business networks within Latin America. The CVC leverages expertise and resources from COPEC to invest entrepreneurs and knowledge in global start-ups and scale-ups, to accelerate and boost their growth within Latin America and the United States.

WIND is an innovation platform that opens the resources of COPEC to others to enable enhanced growth. The two primary capabilities are WIND Ventures in San Francisco and WIND Garage in Santiago.

Brief History

COPEC was originally founded in 1934 and is one of the leading and most trusted brands across Latin America. It is the second largest cooperation in Chile and most trusted brand in both Chile and Columbia.

WIND Ventures was founded in November 2019, as an arm of COPEC. The CVC leverages the 85 years of COPEC’s history and together with WIND Garage in Santiago Chile makes up COPEC’s innovation ecosystem.

Geographically

WIND Ventures is headquartered in San Francisco, California and the United States. It is an arm of COPEC based in Santiago, Chile, which is also part of the Emperas COPEC conglomerate. The fast-growing pace of Latin America’s innovation eco system makes it an important market for global start-ups.

Significant Investments

According to unicorn-nest, WIND Ventures has made a total of 17 investments with an average round size of $26M. Some key investments include:

• H2Pro – Producing green, carbon-free hydrogen, based in Israel.
• Ampere Energy – Spanish-based company developing intelligent battery storage for the residential market.
• Yotta Energy – Based in Texas, allows owners to have more control of energy with modular solar + storage microgrid platforms to increase energy reliability of buildings.
• Busbud – Canadian online ticket booking system for intercity buses around the world.
• Turntide – The world’s most efficient and intelligent electric motor system based out of Silicon Valley.
• Zoomo – Based in Australia, provides convenient utility e-bikes designed for Last Mile Delivery workers.
• Grabango – San Franciscan company providing ‘check out free’ experience for convenience and grocery stores.
• Chiper – Columbian transformation of corner stores throughout Latin America through digital technology.

WIND Ventures in the News

In June 2020, TechCrunch reported the announcement of WIND Ventures and their plans to invest into Series A B and C rounds. In October 2020, Lavca Venture Investors reported how WIND Ventures together with Kaszek Ventures and Monashees, led US$12 M Series A in Chiper, the Columbian management e-commerce platform, quoting the support of Brian Walsh, the head of WIND Ventures. Yahoo! Finance published an article in February 2022 about Busbud raising US$11 M in equity funding, with WIND Ventures as co-lead. In June 2022, TechCrunch reported the participation of WIND Ventures in the Latin American local on-demand delivery app Yummy, and one month later VC News Daily reported the CVC’s contribution to Source Global raising $130 M in Series D round.