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The Venture Codex

Carao Ventures

Avenida Las Americas con Calle 60 Sabana Norte, San Jose, 10108, Costa Rica

Overview

Carao was founded in 2012 in San José, Costa Rica and is led by Allan Boruchowicz. It is a pioneering and leading VC firm in Central America, with active investments in startups in the software, biotech, healthtech, fintech, artificial intelligence (AI), construction tech, and other industries. Carao has a distinctive business model specially designed to invest in early-stage venture opportunities in small- and medium-sized countries in LatAm, a market with significant potential but underdeveloped financial resources for high-potential emerging companies. Its differentiated investment approach combines best practices from early-stage VC firms, venture-building, and startup accelerator programs into a value proposition for both promising startups and sophisticated investors with an interest in frontier markets. Carao managed one of the largest and most active angel investor networks in LatAm, the Carao Ventures Investor Club, which was comprised of 40+ members by the end of 2020, predominantly business owners, high-level corporate executives, high net-worth individuals, and family offices from Central America, Colombia, the U.S., Switzerland, and Italy. As of June 2021, Carao launched Carao Ventures Fund I, a $35 million VC vehicle focused on Latin America (the "Fund"). The Fund’s intended geographic focus consists of: (i) primarily, Central America (including Panama), North Andean region (Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador), and the Dominican Republic; (ii) secondarily, investment opportunities in Argentina, Chile, and other small- and medium-sized LatAm countries (except for Brazil); and (iii) lastly, investment opportunities in Mexico or led by founders from the Target Markets in the U.S. shall be considered as Opportunistic Investments.

Total investments
12
Lead investments
2
Investments · 12mo
2
Active investors
6

Sector focus

  • Finance
  • Financial Services
  • FinTech
  • Information Technology
  • Venture Capital
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Investment portfolio

  • Braven

    Participated · Seed · Jun 2026

    Braven develops AI agents aimed at the insurance industry. The company worked closely with a single design partner and spent about six months building the product and commercial playbook before scaling sales. After that period, Braven acquired eight B2B clients within a three-week span. The founder, Carlos Chavez, relocated to San Francisco and pursued in-person outreach such as conference attendance and direct calls to prospective customers. Braven has completed a roughly $5 million seed round from San Francisco VCs according to the reporting. The articles do not disclose revenue figures, valuation, or detailed future product roadmaps.

  • Rexi

    Participated · Seed · Mar 2026

    Rexi provides an AI-native platform that centralizes financial data sources (including Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, NetSuite, QuickBooks and traditional bank accounts) to automate transaction reconciliation. The platform applies no-code reconciliation rules and an AI agent that resolves exceptions while human reviewers approve, and the company reports matching rates of 99.7% and the ability to reduce processes that took days into minutes. Rexi holds SOC 2 Type II certification and currently operates with a seven-person team based in Buenos Aires and a commercial office in New York. The startup was founded in January 2025 by executives with backgrounds at Mercado Libre, Pomelo, FJ Labs and Naranja X. With the proceeds of its $1.2M pre-seed round closed in July 2025, Rexi plans to strengthen product development, scale technical and commercial teams, expand customer acquisition across Latin America and North America, and pursue a Seed raise in the second half of 2026.

  • Crabi

    Participated · Equity · Jun 2025

    Crabi is a full-stack digital car insurance company that delivers instant, mobile-first policy issuance, automated claims support, and AI-powered underwriting. It combines proprietary infrastructure, regulatory approval, and embedded distribution partnerships with dealers, lenders, and brokers to drive access. Crabi reports 2x+ year-over-year growth, a more than 20x increase in run rate, and materially improved loss ratio and operating efficiency. The company says it is the first tech-native insurance company in over 25 years to receive regulatory approval in Mexico. Crabi plans to expand its distribution network, onboard more partners, and invest further in AI-driven operations and underwriting solutions to close the country’s insurance protection gap. Crabi is a Guadalajara, México-based customer-focused auto insurance company that offers on-demand car insurance customers can acquire from wherever they are, whenever they want. Customers only pay for the coverage they need. The company obtained a license to be a risk-carrier and operates as a full-stack auto insurer. Crabi raised $4M in seed funding led by Kaszek Ventures with participation from Tuesday Capital and Redwood Ventures. It plans to use the funds to expand its customer-centric insurance offering across Mexico and Latin America. Leadership includes Founder and CEO Javier Orozco and CTO Daniel Bernardez; founders include Arnoldo de la Torre, Cristina Carvallo, Ana Elvia Sandoval, Alejandra Vazquez and Estefany Esteban.

  • Strike

    Participated · Series A · Apr 2025

    Strike is a Uruguay-based provider of AI-powered continuous penetration testing and compliance solutions, founded by Santiago Rosenblatt. Its flagship product, Strike360, is an AI-powered engine that automates vulnerability detection, retesting, and compliance processes. Key features include real-time vulnerability alerts, actionable remediation suggestions, and downloadable compliance reports to assist with regulatory requirements. Strike serves enterprise customers across finance, healthcare, and technology, including Okta, Globant, DeliveryHero, and Santander Bank. The company will use the $13.5M Series A to scale operations in the U.S. and Brazil and to accelerate development and deployment of Strike360. The Series A was led by FinTech Collective with participation from Galicia Ventures, Greyhound Capital Management, FJ Labs, Canary Ventures, and Carao Ventures. Strike Security combines automated scanning with a network of ethical hackers (“Strikers”) to deliver continuous penetration testing and recurring vulnerability monitoring at a lower cost than traditional providers. The platform embeds Strikers with engineering teams via integrations with tools such as Jira and Slack, provides automated reporting for compliance, and runs scheduled scans to detect critical vulnerabilities. Strike says its offering is roughly ten times more accessible than some competitors and maintains a waiting list of more than 100 ethical hackers. The company positions its service as a way to shift penetration testing from an infrequent, costly exercise to a consistent security practice. Strike raised a $5.4 million seed round to build out the product and grow its hacker network. The startup plans to use the funding to strengthen its position in the Latin American region in 2022 and subsequently expand into the U.S. and European markets.

  • aviva

    Participated · Seed · Aug 2024

    Aviva offers loans generally between $100 and $1,000 to individuals and small businesses, primarily serving informal-economy customers outside major metropolitan areas. Customers apply through videoconference bots at physical kiosks and applications are evaluated in minutes using AI models that analyze behavioral and identity signals. The company currently operates in more than 300 small and mid-sized cities across 23 Mexican states and reports over 300,000 completed kiosk application processes. Aviva’s product lineup includes a working-capital loan for microbusinesses and a point-of-sale consumer credit product deployed through kiosks inside retail stores. Founded in 2022 by Filiberto Castro, David Hernández, Amran Frey and Israel García, the company has raised $34 million in capital and more than $80 million in credit lines to date. Aviva aims to reach an addressable market of over 50 million adults with limited access to banking services and plans to use recent funding to expand locations, products and technology staff.

Team