COMETA is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies targeting Spanish-speaking markets globally.
The firm was founded in 2012 as VARIV Capital by Diego and Ernesto Vargas who subsequently invited Rafael de Haro as the third co-founder. This marked the establishment of a venture capital firm for the technology sector in Mexico and Latin America.
The first fund, VARIV I, which started making investments in 2013, was focused on e-commerce and its enablers, namely, payments and logistics. Over 10 investments were made in those categories expanding the geographic scope from Latin America to Spain.
In 2015, the Firm raised a second fund, VARIV II, to capture the emerging opportunities in fintech, marketplaces, and first-generation enterprise businesses founded by local entrepreneurs. Pepe Bolaños, who joined the Firm as a Principal in 2014, became a Partner in 2017. Throughout the four-year investment period, sixteen companies were added to the firm’s portfolio, and the scope broadened to include the US.
In 2019, the firm rebranded to COMETA. That same year, once the investment period of VARIV II ended, Diego and Ernesto decided to step down from their operational roles in the fund to focus full-time on their holding company VARIV. As Co-founders, they remain advisors and LPs of VARIV II but, as of the third fund, they are no longer part of the GP (in 2023, they reached an agreement to sell their stake to Rafael and Pepe for all future funds).
In 2021, COMETA III, the Firm’s third fund, was launched to continue investing in the founders that are building the category-defining companies in the Spanish-speaking world.
