Cencosud Ventures: New Investment Arm for Startups

Santiago, August 28, 2021.- Cencosud announced today the creation of a venture capital-oriented unit, called Cencosud Ventures, through which it will connect with Latin American entrepreneurs and startups, based on scalable technology and digital solutions, to grow in the region's markets.

"Cencosud Ventures is our new venture investment arm to connect us with a virtuous innovation ecosystem, allowing us to improve the value proposition for our customers," said Matías Videla, CEO of Cencosud.

The focus of this new unit will be to support tech startups, accelerating the digital evolution that Cencosud is driving, in the areas of: E-Commerce, Logistics and Supply Chain, Fintech, and Retail Services.

"Almost 60 years ago, Cencosud was born as a startup. Today we lead retail in the region and we want to continue evolving hand in hand with startups and for this ecosystem to also grow with us," Videla pointed out.

The Corporate Venture Capital area of Cencosud will be led by José Antonio Pascual, who led investments and was a member of the boards of Wayra's startups, Movistar's open innovation and corporate risk investment area.

"The goal of Cencosud Ventures is to identify and invest in emerging companies that are in a growth stage, that is, with a product, customers, and scaling projections. We have started the deployment in several countries and we are already in talks with innovative local companies. We see a lot of talent and ambition," explains Pascual.