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Brazilian investment platform XP and VC firm Headline join to launch new venture capital fund

Headline will be led by Romero Rodrigues; the new fund will have an investment thesis focused on early-stage startups

Brazilian XP and VC firm Headline join to launch new venture capital fund
Guilherme Benchimol, XP's board president, Romero Rodrigues, Headline managing partner, and Thiago Maffra, CEO at XP. Photo: Courtesy
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Brazilian investment platform XP and Headline, the recently launched Brazilian arm of the international venture capital manager with the same name, announced a partnership to launch a new venture capital fund to back startups with high scale potential in the country and in the international market.

Headline – one of Redpoint eventures‘ successors, which reached BRL 1.5 billion in investments in startups such as the unicorns Creditas, Gympass, Rappi, and Olist – arrives on the market joining XP’s operational structure and assets with Headline Global‘s track record and technological platform developed over the last 20 years. In Brazil, Headline will be led by Romero Rodrigues, founder of Buscapé and managing partner of Redpoint eventures.

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The next VC fund will focus on the same strategy as Redpoint eventures 1 and Redpoint eventures 2 of investing in early-stage startups. Created in 2012, the $130 million fund 1 invested in 30 companies, including four unicorns. The $175 million fund 2 was launched in 2018, rounded out its portfolio of 26 companies early last year. According to Rodrigues, both funds are delivering returns above the expected target for the class, which is 25% per year.

Rodrigues says Headline brings together a completely independent management team with experience investing in startups, a global VC firm bringing the best insights, solutions and technologies, and, through the partnership with XP, adds “capillarity” to the formula. XP’s platform has more than 9,000 investment advisors, consultants, and family offices, which will boost business generation through all this capillarity.

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“Our mission will be to help develop the entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem in the country and democratize venture capital among Brazilian investors”, says Rodrigues.

Thiago Maffra, CEO of XP, affirms that XP has been trying to launch more and more initiatives to support Brazilian startups and that the company intends to invest in up to 30 different businesses through the new fund.

Headline will also count on the global platform and expertise of its international partners, Jeff Brody, founder of Redpoint, and Mathias Schilling, founder of Headline, formerly e.ventures, who are still on the investment committee of the management company.

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