(Bloomberg) -- Former Argentine soccer star Hernan Crespo, Despegar.com founder Roberto Souviron and a slew of Latin American companies are among the latest investors to put money into venture capital fund Alaya Capital. 

Argentine’s Grupo Supervielle, Grupo Murchison and Chile’s Grupo Kawen also invested in Alaya’s third fund, which has so far raised about $25 million, or 31% of its $80 million goal to fund Latin American companies, according to partner Juan Manuel Giner. The Alaya III fund has already started investing, with initial bets in Argentine crypto startup Lemoncash, fintech SixClovers and Peruvian food tech company Megabite. 

Alaya, which was founded in 2012 and has headquarters in Santiago, has invested in 35 companies since inception and its biggest hit was being the first investor of Betterfly, a Chilean insurance tech company that reached a $1 billion valuation in February. The third fund will look at early-stage investments, between $500,000 and $2 million per company, with a focus on those that either have “outstanding” ESG practices or further the United Nations’ sustainable development objectives. 

“We’ve told the companies for us it’s fundamental to add value on these points, and we’ll work with them on this over the course of the investment period of eight to 10 years,” Giner said in an interview. “Early-stage companies are our expertise. We’re very hands on in helping them grow.” 

The company is also opening an office in Mexico, which will be led by one of its partners, Claudio Barahona, who will relocate from Chile, as it seeks to support the companies in its portfolio that are looking to grow in that key market. Alaya already has offices in Buenos Aires and Santiago and “venture partners” in Peru and Colombia. 

Funding for Latin America has slowed down this year amid a tougher environment for the tech sector as global rates rise. Investments through July 27 were $6.1 billion, according to financial data firm PitchBook. That’s after a record $16.3 billion of venture capital poured into Latin America in 2021.

Read more: Latin America’s unicorns face a reckoning as VCs flee

In this context, several Latin American venture capital funds have focused on raising funds for earlier-stage investments, including 17Sigma and biotech-focused GridX. 

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