In December 2005, SEAF founded Fondo Transandino Colombia (FTC), a pioneer private equity fund in Colombia, to invest in promising small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country. FTC was launched with funding from our regional umbrella fund, the SEAF TransAndean Early-Stage Fund, to make direct equity and equity-related minority investments in growth oriented SMEs in Colombia.
SEAF established the fund at a crucial time in Colombia’s economy and received strong support from all levels of the Colombian government. At the time of the fund’s inception, a number of regulatory reforms were enacted in Colombia that enabled pension funds and insurance companies to diversify by investing a small portion of their assets in an equity fund vehicle such as FTC. Due to these reforms, FTC has five local institutional investors comprised of three pension funds and two insurance companies that together account for 60% of the fund’s size.
At the time of the fund’s launch, the country was experiencing unprecedented levels of improved security, combined with strong economic growth, that positioned FTC to capitalize on the substantial number of SMEs and professional entrepreneurs in the country in need of expansion capital. Colombia’s first private equity fund, FTC has proven to be the perfect vehicle to match equity capital demand from medium business with the ever growing internal savings via the pension fund system.
