Entrepreneur, advisor and relentless investor. He is currently one of the pacesetters of the Latin American ecosystem. Sacha ventured into various fields, founding and leading different projects, from the offline world through fashion and cultural center, to tech startups and VCs (incubator, accelerator and VC fund).
He is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Newtopia, an early-stage VC aiming to become one of the main drivers of the Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem. He was also Managing Partner and Co-Founder of YAVU Ventures, an Accelerator and Venture Studio that invested in 20 early-stage tech-based startups. And he was part of several incubation and acceleration programs such as Startup Chile, Seed Minas Gerais, Wharton Venture Initiation Program.
In addition, motivated by his passion and the purpose of helping entrepreneurs in early stages, in 2017 he was Co-Founder and Operating Director of Sparklab, the Incubator of the University of San Andrés (Argentina's top business school) that every year rewards and supports the country's innovative ventures in the UdeSA Startup Competition.
Sacha is Argentine, and has lived in Chile, Ecuador and Canada. When he was 25 years old, he left everything aside and traveled the world in 6 months; It could be said that risk is in his blood as part of his life, since he is the son and grandson of Argentine film producers with great success from the 60s to the 80s.
“I am passionate about art and a fan of the audiovisual industry, and I think there is a certain correlation with venturing in two aspects. On the one hand, using creativity to generate a product, be it a startup, a film or a masterpiece, that is well received by its audience or market. On the other hand, more related to film production, venturing and investing in startups, is also about finding the best actors to play the different roles that a team must have, in order to execute the script perfectly or get it wrong fast and learn to improve, in addition to providing them with the stage and all the resources for that success to happen”, he reflected in an opportunity for Forbes Argentina.
In the field of tech startups, he was Co-Founder and CEO of X-Miles, a virtual wallet that allowed users to manage all their loyalty programs in one place and redeem their miles and points for everyday products and services. (for example, to pay with miles for an Uber trip, a Netflix/Spotify subscription, a coffee at Starbucks, etc.), a project that was selected by several business programs: Warthon VIP Program in PHL and SFO, Seed of Minas Gerais Brazil, Seed Capital in Argentina and Startup Chile in Santiago de Chile. In addition, he was Co-Founder of Points.Market, an online platform that allowed users to manage their frequent flyer miles and loyalty points and exchange them with other members.
The leap into the investment world came in 2016 with YAVU Ventures, where he was Managing Partner and Co-Founder, a VC that offered technology startups a 360-degree value proposition with an investment of up to $100,000 strategic mentoring, coworking space, business development and workshops, among other perks.
In parallel, he was Operating Director and Founding Member of the Universidad de San Andrés Incubator, an innovative venue that helps entrepreneurs take their ideas to the next stage and provides them with a set of tools to validate their business hypotheses, mentoring, and a series of benefits to launch their business.
About Newtopia VC
Newtopia VC is a venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage emerging startups, with investment, mentoring, and, as Sacha highlighted, “an incredible community of wonderful founders to guide the new generation of Latino entrepreneurs with global dreams.” .
Regarding Newtopia VC’s mission, Sacha stressed: «Investing in startups that can break paradigms and reinvent industries, which is why we look for entrepreneurs who are trying to solve society’s big problems in the short, medium and long term.»
And he remarked that «at Newtopia, we are agnostic in terms of sectors and we look for opportunities in all types of industries, from finance to education, including foodtech, agriculture, health and energy, among others.»
About Yavu Ventures
Yavu Ventures was an Accelerator and Venture Studio that invested in early stage tech startups. In 36 months it managed to analyze more than 2,000 projects and invest in 20 startups.
This fund focused on technology-based companies, with a high degree of innovation, with the ability to scale regionally or globally, and also led by outlier entrepreneurs; offering an investment of up to $100,000 and a hands-on value proposition that included various benefits to boost companies.
About Incubadora UdeSA
The UdeSA Incubator supports ventures in early stages of development and helps them find the way to validate the hypotheses of their value proposition and launch their products, platforms or services to the market.
It is an incubation program made up of: the Startup School, office space, financial support and advisory by the UdeSA Mentoring Network.
Some spaces to get to know it better…
“All the companies in which we are investing and those we are looking at with Newtopia have a very important tech component and based on innovative ideas that can find solutions for the industry in which they participate”. Read post here
«A revolution is taking place because of the impressive talent in Latin America, and this talent is capable of overcoming the challenges of each country in the region». Read post here
“We are looking for entrepreneurs who want to innovate and who have a projection towards all of Latin America. We look at the team, the size of the market they’re betting on, the team’s experience, their previous ventures, and the founder’s ability to attract talent. We have invested in 52 startups in our first year and in 12 months we saw more than 800 companies”. Read post here
“What mattered most was how we were able to learn first as entrepreneurs and then move on to the investor role”. Read post here
«I would tell entrepreneurs to put a lot of focus and thought into the product and/or service they are offering, since we are at a time when companies that can show early traction in users stand out.» Listen podcast here
