Rafa is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at COMETA. Founded in 2012, COMETA is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage software companies serving Spanish-speaking markets globally. Some investments include: +1BN companies like Bitso and Cabify; local payment and lending platforms like R2 and Kueski; regional fintech players like Simetrik and Prometeo; and global Hispanic players like Territorium and WelcomeTech.

Rafa also served as Board Member of AMEXCAP (the Mexican Private Equity and Venture Capital Association) where he was the Chairman of the Venture Capital Committee. He teaches a venture capital course for undergraduate students at ITAM. Rafa was Co-Founder and CEO of Lifedots, a New York-based software company. Before Cometa and Lifedots, Rafael was an investment-banking associate in the M&A Group at JPMorgan in their London office, an associate attorney at the New York law firm of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP, and a consultant in international trade at SAI, a consultancy in Mexico City.

Atul Gupta has a distinguished career spanning over 30 years in technology, business operations and private equity investing. Over the last 17 years, he has spearheaded investments in consumer tech, fintech, enterprise tech and healthcare for Premji Invest and Trident Growth Partners. He has served on numerous boards of his portfolio companies, including Amagi Media, Lenskart, Policybazaar, Purplle, KreditBee, FirstCry and Pixis.ai, where he was instrumental in partnering with founders to drive profitable growth through both digital and offline strategies. He has played a key role in taking several of his portfolio companies public in India. Prior to Premji Invest, Atul was an investment banker at Deutsche Bank, focusing on the tech sector, where he was instrumental in closing M&A, LBO and equity financing transactions in the enterprise technology and semiconductor space. Earlier in his career, he spent a decade in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, holding roles in technology, product development and customer management at Applied Materials and Lam Research.

Jessica leads our growth strategy, Openspace Growth, and is based in Singapore. She is a member of the Openspace Growth Investment Committee, our Executive Committee and chairs our ESG committee.

Previously, she headed Corporate Strategy & Business Development, APAC & the Middle East, at The Walt Disney Company. Prior to that, she led the investment team for Providence Equity Partners in Southeast Asia and worked in Investment Banking at Citigroup.

Jessica is a member of the Global Tech Council for the Global Private Capital Association (GPCA), Co-chairs the Singapore chapter of PEWIN and was a member of the Milken Institute’s Young Leaders Circle.

She holds a Bachelor's of Arts in Political Science from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Fabiola Quinzanos joined Monashees in 2021 and she focuses on fintech, climatech and consumer-oriented companies.

She works closely with companies such as Fintoc, Inventa, Nowports, Slope and Yuno. She also leads Monashees on the ground operations in Mexico. 

Prior to Monashees, she worked in private equity in the US focusing on tech and sustainability, and in Mexico through a generalist approach.  Fabiola is from Mexico City, Mexico.

She holds an MBA and a MS in Environmental Resources from Stanford University where she was the co-president of the Latin American Student Association and an Arbuckle Fellow.

Carlos Ramos de la Vega is the Managing Director of Global Strategy at GPCA. In this role, he coordinates the organization’s relationships with venture and technology investors, publishes the Global Tech Brief, GPCA’s flagship newsletter on cross-border tech investment in global markets, and oversees the organization’s tech-related products and initiatives. He is a regular speaker at meetings on tech investment in global markets and is frequently cited in the financial press including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Bloomberg.

Carlos also serves as the Director of Venture Capital at the Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America (LAVCA), GPCA’s sister organization, since 2020, where he leads the organization’s relationships with venture investors, and oversees the production of Latin America-specific VC/Tech content, including the LatAm Venture Bulletin.

Prior to joining GPCA, Carlos was a member of the Mergers & Acquisition Group in UBS based in New York, where he was responsible for the analysis and due diligence of cross-border transactions between the United States, the United Kingdom, India and South Korea.

He received his B.S. in Economics with honors distinction and Minors in Industrial Engineering and Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sara Rona is a managing director of Global Gateway for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and is the head of UK/Europe and Middle East North Africa (Turkey, Egypt, UAE and Jordan) for the bank. Sara manages an expansive global portfolio of tech startups and venture capital firms who are expanding stateside and need cross-border banking services as they scale. Additionally, Sara brings 15 years of global experience and strives to provide value beyond banking by helping clients with their international strategy and being a bridge into the US.

Sara joined SVB in 2018 and has been in finance for the last 15 years at a variety of different financial institutions including HSBC, IFC-World Bank and Deutsche Bank. She has an MBA in international business and has spent time living in Dubai, Bangkok, Paris, London, and the US with volunteer work in Afghanistan and Kenya. In her free time, Sara is planning her next scuba dive or ski weekend.

Monica Saggioro is a Co-Founder of MAYA Capital, and an investor with an operational background across Latin America and the U.S., having worked in companies such as Goldman Sachs and RBI. She graduated from Harvard Business School and is a partner at MAYA Capital, an Early-Stage fund focused on Brazil and Latin America.

Nicolas Toro is the Head of Latam Markets at SVB’s Global Gateway, which supports Latam’s innovation economy as its main US banking partner. Previously he was the Manager of Entrepreneurship and Access to Capital at Endeavor Colombia and Endeavor Catalyst. Nicolas holds a Masters from Columbia University and resides in Miami.

Andy Tsao is a Managing Director and Head of SVB’s Global Gateway, which assists innovation companies in the emerging markets with their US and international market expansion. He brings more than 20 years of experience banking dynamic companies in technology industries worldwide.

In his roles, Andy manages SVB’s relationships with venture capital and private equity firms outside the U.S., helps emerging market technology companies as they seek U.S. market entry, and U.S. companies as they seek to expand abroad. In both capacities, Tsao provides these firms with strategic advice and banking services, including debt financing, based on a deep understanding of their needs.

Previously, Andy led and helped found SVB’s U.K.-based operation, SVB Financial Group UK Ltd, which was established in 2004, Andy is on the boards of TiE Silicon Valley, Asia America MultiTechnology Association Silicon Valley, Asia Society of Northern California, and BayBrazil. Tsao earned a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and an MBA from Boston University.