Pablo Perea

About

They started Marathon initially as a company builder in 2020, which is how they ended up investing in Tul, ​​a B2B e-commerce marketplace that optimizes the construction-material supply chain for hardware stores across Latin America. In January, Tul announced a $181 million Series B round at an $800 million valuation. They then pivoted to be a fund, though they continued to leverage their previous knowledge and network. Echavarria says Marathon invests in talent at the earliest stages, even before there is a pitch deck. “One of the biggest pain points, where Pablo is actually an expert, is creating a top-of-the-line team and developing markets,” he said. “In fact, 50% of our team is focused on helping scale.” [...] One of the investors seeing promise in this country is Marathon Ventures, which closed its first fund of $26 million, touted as one of the country’s largest funds to date. Alejandro Echavarria and Leon Papu, both managing partners, co-founded the venture capital firm in 2020 with Pablo Navarro, operating partner, to focus on early-stage, business-to-business startups in emerging markets. Their plan is to fund about 20 companies in fintech, SaaS and marketplaces. Echavarria has a background in finance and construction while Navarro was previously with Amazon. Echavarria says Latin America is traditionally viewed differently by investors. “It’s a different paradigm,” he added. “Only a few years ago, you would have to be introduced to 100 funds before you could g