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- VC Mx: Carlos Alonso Torras: Partner, Fintech Collective
VC Mx: Carlos Alonso Torras: Partner, Fintech Collective
Carlos Alonso Torras leads FinTech Collective’s LATAM practice, backing visionary founders building the financial infrastructure of the next 30 years across emerging markets.
Mack Meyer
April 30, 2025
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Carlos Alonso Torras leads the Latin America practice at FinTech Collective, a global venture capital firm backing fintech companies at the earliest stages. FTC, Fintech Collective, aims to support and back founders who are building the financial infrastructure of the next 30 years. That often means being the first institutional investor into startups that are still pre-product, pre-revenue, or pre-license.
We’re looking for incredibly ambitious people solving real problems with limited resources—founders who’ve been told ‘no’ a hundred times and are still pushing forward. That kind of resilience is often the biggest signal.
Speaking five languages Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French Carlos is a natural polyglot, enabling him to build meaningful connections across cultures and geographies in the diverse fintech ecosystem.
How early exposure to Latin America shaped his career focus
From an early age, I was raised abroad, and I think that made a big difference, not just linguistically, but in how I understand and relate to Latin America today.
Carlos grew up immersed in multicultural experiences. Born to a Brazilian father of Spanish and Lebanese descent and a Spanish mother, he spent his childhood moving between Spain and Brazil. By the time he was eight, his family had relocated to Latin America giving him not just fluency in Portuguese, but a deep understanding of the region’s cultural and business nuances.
This early exposure shaped Carlos’s perspective in ways he only fully appreciated later. His comfort moving between worlds, Spain, Brazil, and broader Latin America became foundational to his ability to spot emerging trends and understand the entrepreneurial DNA of the region.
After a stint as a trader at JP Morgan, Carlos jumped into the startup world, joining Suyo a early-stage company where he wore every possible hat: fundraising, product, legal, compliance. The experience gave him firsthand appreciation for the messy, imperfect reality of early-stage building a perspective he carried with him when he transitioned into venture capital at FinTech Collective (FTC).
Rewiring Global Finance
Carlos didn’t launch FTC’s LatAm strategy. That was Sean Lippel, a friend and partner at the firm. Sean was focused on digital assets and lending at the time two very different worlds. Since then, he’s gone on to lead FTC’s DeFi strategy and build out two dedicated crypto funds.
By the time Carlos joined, FTC had already made two small investments in LATAM. He worked on two more that same summer during his summer internship at FTC, but the firm was still mostly following not leading rounds in the region. That’s changed dramatically.
The core thesis hasn’t changed. We’re still focused on rewiring how money moves around the world. But what’s changed is our conviction we’ve gone from toe-dipping to actively leading deals in Latin America.
That thesis has evolved to include the intersection of fintech and AI, where rapid innovation is reshaping everything from payments to asset management. But FTC doesn’t box itself into one vertical or trend. They invest across the entire fintech stack from infrastructure to lending to cybersecurity and they do it globally.
You can’t get stale. You have to keep pushing the thesis, constantly refreshing your view of where the market is going and what problems still need solving.
LATAM, India, & Infrastructure Bets
When it comes to pattern recognition, Carlos finds more relevant analogies in India than in the U.S.
India’s UPI transformed the way people think about payments, and Brazil’s PIX is following a similar trajectory. These aren’t small shifts, they’re structural changes that unlock new models, and LATAM is moving in that direction quickly.
That belief has driven investments in companies like Strike, a cybersecurity startup based in Latam, and Simetrik, which offers back-office infrastructure for financial institutions. These startups aren’t consumer-facing, but they’re critical to LATAM’s financial modernization.
Infrastructure is where a lot of the magic happens. It’s not always sexy, but it enables everything else to work, and that’s where you find real defensibility.
Is Regulation a Risk or an Advantage?
In markets like Mexico, fintech isn’t just about product it’s about navigating regulation, distribution, and trust. Getting the right license can make or break a startup. In places where incumbents still dominate, having the right commercial partners can create massive moats.
In LATAM, distribution can be the most powerful form of defensibility. If you can land a strategic partner early, it changes the game.
That’s what drew FTC to Mattilda, an edtech company that landed an exclusive distribution agreement with Santillana, one of the largest textbook publishers in the region. Relationships like that are nearly impossible for competitors to replicate.
FTC’s Portfolio Construction
FinTech Collective doesn’t chase volume. Each fund makes 15 to 20 core investments, with a strong preference for leading or co-leading rounds. The goal is to build real ownership and reserve enough capital for follow-ons. If a company outperforms, FTC can support it through its opportunity fund, which has already doubled down on standout bets like Simetrik and Matilda.
We’re not indexing the market. We want to be deeply involved. That means fewer deals, more conviction, and tighter relationships with founders.
Being the first institutional check means taking risks, and sometimes making calls others won’t. But FTC has built a strong gut for what great founders look like. That instinct is sharpened by pattern recognition, but ultimately it comes down to character.
Backing Foundational Fintech Infrastructure
Carlos Alonso Torras’s early bets on Minka and Simetrik reflect a clear thesis: invest in technical founders building the underlying infrastructure for Latin America’s financial ecosystem.
With Minka, the vision was to modernize outdated payment rails. Carlos had known cofounder Dom since his early days as a summer associate.
Dom had this rare mix of deep technical chops and a ton of patience. He fully immersed himself in Colombia, even became fluent in Spanish, which helped him navigate complex government partnerships.
Minka powers Colombia’s real-time payment system, Transfiya, and is now expanding across Latin America, with interest coming from other regions like India and Africa.
Simetrik, on the other hand, began as a financial reconciliation platform and quietly scaled into 35+ markets.
When I visited their Bogotá office in 2021, I was blown away. It wasn’t just the founders — every single person was sharp and mission-aligned. It felt like a cult, in the best way. Their customers pulled them into new markets. That’s when they realized the demand was global.
Their disciplined growth, focus on internal culture, and early emphasis on hiring a Head of People set them apart.
These two startups capture a core belief behind Carlos’s investing:
Founders with technical depth and cultural buy-in can build infrastructure that scales far beyond their starting point.
Lessons From FinTech Collective Founding Partners
Working alongside Brooks and Gareth. the founding partners at FinTech Collective taught Carlos a lesson that’s stuck with him: Investors have to think like operators.
That means building a fund the same way a founder builds a startup.
Empower the team, give them the tools they need, and then step out of the way. Respect the limits of your own expertise, and delegate with conviction.
Carlos says he’s grateful to have experienced that kind of leadership and hopes to pay it forward as he grows his own team.
How Great Investors Spend Their Time?
As responsibilities pile up board meetings, diligence calls, strategy sessions productivity becomes less about speed and more about focus.
It’s about choosing where to go deep. You have to spend more time with fewer people who you trust to challenge your thinking and sharpen your judgment. I try to make space for new conversations and unexpected collisions.
Striking that balance is a constant struggle. But it’s what makes the job worth doing.
Most Underrated Skill in Venture…
Ask most people what makes a great investor and you’ll hear the usual answers: analytical rigor, strong pattern recognition, good judgment.
But for Carlos, two traits stand out above the rest: creativity and courage.
Creativity matters because every deal is different. The same advice doesn’t work for every founder. The same structure doesn’t work for every round. Great investors know how to adapt — how to shape deals, solve problems, and deliver feedback in ways that actually land.
Courage is equally essential, especially in venture, where it’s not about consensus but conviction. "Sometimes the best bets are the ones no one else is willing to make."
What Matters Most?
When asked what he’s most proud of, Carlos doesn’t mention a portfolio company or a big exit. He talks about Suyo, the social enterprise he helped build before joining venture.
At Suyo, he worked on formalizing property rights for low-income families across Latin America. It was high-impact, hands-on work the kind of work where the results were tangible.
I was able to help the lives of thousands of people. I worked with fantastic human beings.
That experience left a mark. It also clarified what motivates him today: proximity to impact. Venture lets him support founders who are changing lives at scale but Suyo gave him a taste of what it feels like to do it directly.
What He’d Do With an Extra Hour?
Reading.
Carlos lights up when he talks about books, reports, and deep dives, anything that challenges and expands his thinking. However, like many investors, finding time for thesis development is challenging.
While it's a constant struggle, Carlos is determined to make reading a priority, recognizing its importance in shaping his perspective and strategies.
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