Cummins hedges his bets

It took Andrew Cummins of Explorador Capital Management, the Latin American hedge funds specialist, just a month to round up $15 million for investment in Internet-related ventures focusing on the Latin American markets.

The fund, explorador.net, held a first close in July. Explorador analyst Peter Morrow said the Internet vehicle, raised exclusively from US sources, had attracted both financial and strategic investors.

explorador.net’s remit encompasses US companies targeting the Latin American Internet market as well as enterprises based in Latin America. The fund may also back some Internet ventures aimed at the US Hispanic market. Brazil, home to half of all Latin America’s Internet users, will be an important focus for explorador.net, but the fund can invest throughout the region.

Cummins is the sole partner in explorador.net’s four strong management team, all of whom are fluent in Spanish. One senior analyst, Sandro Trosso, works out of Miami, at the heart of the Silicon Barrio’, while Morrow, Cummins and senior analyst Oswaldo Sandoval operate out of San Francisco. The team makes frequent trips to Latin America, where explorador.net will benefit from Explorador Capital’s extensive network of relationships with regional businesses.

The fund will target early-stage opportunities, making initial investments of between $250,000 and $1 million per company.

explorador.net does not expect to encounter much competition for Latin American Internet opportunities, since other US investors active in the region tend to focus on more mature deals.