Private equity in Latin America and Eduardo Elejalde need each other. Elejalde is chairman of the Latin American Venture Capital Association (Lavca) as well as the chief executive of three funds in Colombia that are on track to report internal rates of return of 35%. Having transformed himself from a regional fund manager in the 1990s to a Colombian manager in the past decade, Elejalde now hopes to continue his private equity crusade in Latin America and open up niche funds in Peru and possibly Mexico. To each new fund and country, Elejalde brings expertise and experience. His ideas on regulation and legal framework are often seen as indisputable and his reputation as a manager who can produce returns is justified.
The financier has shown his ability to break new ground and open new markets – in 1994, he set up one of the first Latin American regional private equity groups, the Latin America Enterprise Fund (LAEF), with partner Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.