GRIDX is the leading venture capital fund for life sciences companies in Latin America. Pulse 2.0 interviewed GRIDX founder and CEO Matias Peire to learn more about the firm.
Matias Peire’s Background
What is Matias Peire’s background? Peire said:
“I consider myself an entrepreneur at heart. With a bachelor’s degree in business, I unexpectedly became a founder in my early 20s (2002), launching a company that developed hardware and software for signal monitoring in the broadcasting industry. What made this venture particularly challenging was its highly technical and niche nature, especially given my non-technical background.”
“This experience transformed me into a valuable connector between engineers and the business world—a role that became central to my professional identity. Later, I strengthened my business acumen by completing a Master’s in Finance and began exploring the venture capital landscape.”
“After more than a decade immersed in entrepreneurship, my focus shifted toward supporting science-based startups in Latin America. In 2013, I embarked on a comprehensive exploration of investment strategies for early-stage, science-driven ventures in the region. This deliberate investigation culminated in the founding of GRIDX in 2016, an investment fund designed to bridge the gap between scientific innovation and commercial success in Latin America’s evolving entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
Evolution Of GRIDX’s Thesis
How has your firm’s thesis evolved over time? Peire noted:
“That initial exploration revealed a profound ecosystem gap: Latin America possessed world-class scientific talent—brilliant researchers collaborating with prestigious global institutions and publishing in high-impact journals—yet the region suffered from a striking absence of investable science-based startups.”
“We faced a fundamental challenge: we couldn’t merely invest in companies that didn’t exist. Instead, we had to venture upstream and actively catalyze their creation. This realization led us to develop a sophisticated company builder model specifically designed to transform scientific breakthroughs into viable startups by strategically matching innovative scientists with complementary business profiles to forge high-impact founding teams.”
“After a couple years of rigorous testing and methodical iteration, we launched a $1 million prototype fund in 2017 to invest in the first five companies built through our model. The promising results propelled us forward, and in 2018, we expanded our initiative into an $11.5 million fund that ultimately backed 36 startups. This expanded portfolio not only validated our model but enabled us to assemble a formidable core team, including María Renner, a neuroscience PhD who now serves as a General Partner, and Federico Marque, an accomplished engineer and biotech founder who also joined as a GRIDX GP.”
“Building on this momentum, we launched Fund II in 2022—a $30 million investment vehicle currently deploying capital across the region. This fund has already backed 45 new companies spanning seven countries throughout Latin America, extending our mission to transform the region’s scientific talent into a thriving ecosystem of innovative ventures addressing significant global challenges.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for your firm so far? Peire’s reflected:
“First connecting with the IndieBio team—Ryan and Arvind—back in 2015, and establishing a relationship with the accelerator at its inception, which was investing in revolutionary early-stage biotech. Within the following two years (2017), we were fortunate to introduce Beeflow, a pioneering startup focused on bioscience solutions for bee health and pollination. The presentation paid off when Beeflow subsequently applied to IndieBio and was selected, making history as the first Argentine company to be accepted into its prestigious program—a defining moment for Latin American biotechnology.”
“The success stories continued to multiply, with several of our portfolio companies—Stämm, Caspr, Michroma, Puna Bio, Bioeutectics, and OncoPrecision—following in Beeflow’s footsteps and advancing through IndieBio’s rigorous programs. Witnessing these visionary founders harness Latin America’s rich knowledge base and unparalleled biodiversity while simultaneously thriving in competitive global venture capital ecosystems has been profoundly rewarding.”
“When we embarked on this journey, skepticism abounded. Regional investors repeatedly challenged us: “Why would this science be competitive in the US market?” While we possessed unwavering confidence in the exceptional quality of Latin American scientific research, we recognized the necessity of empirical validation. Though still in the early chapters of our investment narrative, we can now proudly assert that our thesis is materializing before our eyes. The evidence is compelling: scientific innovation emerging from Latin America isn’t merely participating in the global conversation—it’s actively shaping it, demonstrating world-class competitiveness, and securing its rightful place on the international stage.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of your firm’s most significant milestones? Peire cited:
“There are several and I would first like to point out that this year, for the first time, we are hosting a U.S. Roadshow featuring 21 startups from our portfolio, showcasing their groundbreaking technologies in Tulsa (OK), in partnership with Atento Capital and the George Kaiser Foundation, New York, and San Francisco. The meticulously organized tour is strategically designed to connect Latin America’s most promising science-based startups with leading U.S. investors and corporate partners, creating unprecedented opportunities for cross-border collaboration and capital infusion.”
“We became the first biotech-focused VC firm in Latin America with a company builder model—pioneering an approach that has fundamentally transformed how scientific research is commercialized across the region. Our innovative methodology bridges the critical gap between academic discovery and market application in ways uniquely tailored to Latin America’s distinctive innovation ecosystem.”
“Our thesis validation came through achieving our first exit when a portfolio company leveraging biodiversity from the Andean region was acquired by a major U.S. technology firm. This breakthrough transaction demonstrated that Latin American biotech startups could not only compete with, but outperform spinouts from prestigious U.S. universities—a powerful testament to the region’s scientific excellence and entrepreneurial potential.”
“Since our founding in 2017, we’ve methodically built the largest early-stage biotech portfolio in Latin America, encompassing 81 pioneering startups across diverse sectors including synthetic biology, foodtech, agtech, and climate technology. This unparalleled portfolio represents the vanguard of Latin American scientific innovation and commercialization.”
“In 2022, the successful closing of Fund II ($30 million) enabled us to dramatically scale our operations across Latin America—establishing dedicated teams in Mexico, Brazil, and Uruguay, while simultaneously deepening our presence in Argentina. This expansion phase coincided with a watershed moment in our institutional development: the IDB Lab joined as our first institutional investor. GRIDX proudly became the first biotech fund in the region to be backed by the IDB Lab, which today stands as the largest venture capital fund investor in Latin America—an endorsement that significantly enhanced our credibility and opened doors to additional institutional capital sources.”
Investment Success Stories
When asking Peire about investment success stories, he highlighted:
“Stämm is one of GRIDX’s earliest investments. They are at the forefront of biomanufacturing innovation, with a desktop-sized bioreactor that mimics the natural environment of cells through laminar flow. GRIDX was their first investor; later they were backed by IndieBio, Draper Associates, and Varana Capital. Today, they have raised over $40 million in capital, have a 200-person R&D team, and are global pioneers in precision fermentation through microfluidics.”
AUM And Notable Metrics
When asking Peire about the firm’s assets under maangement and other metrics, he revealed:
“We currently manage two funds with $41.5 million in AUM. Our 81 portfolio companies have created nearly $700 million in enterprise value and employ over 700 scientists, advancing cutting-edge technologies from lab to market.”
Industry Focus
What are some of the industries that your firm is focused on? Peire pointed out:
“We focus on non-therapeutic biotech, with applications in:
— Health (diagnostics, microbiome, personalized medicine)
— Agrifood & land use
— Bioindustry
— Deepbio (platform technologies that enable biotech)
Biotech is digital today and that’s why today if we think about biotech we have to think about Artificial intelligence. Regarding this conversation we had companies in our portfolio with focus on bioinformatics that naturally jump into the data science / AI discussion. Besides this companies many companies from our portfolio did not have team members native in bioinformatics. That’s why we created a company to give Data Science and AI services to all these companies at the portfolio that don’t have this in-house capabilities.
Our viison is that there will be no biotech company without a AI strategy and thats why we are working in this direction.”
Differentiation
Differentiation From Other Firms
What differentiates your firm from other firms? Peire emphasized:
“We have developed a proprietary company builder model specifically designed to transform scientific research in Latin America into global-impact startups. We have a strong presence in the region, with a network spanning Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay, and we are experiencing sustained growth. We recently signed a partnership in Chile, which represents a significant milestone in our international growth strategy.”
“Another key differentiator is the diversity of our portfolio. It is noteworthy that 75% of our start-ups have women founders, which is an exceptional figure in the biotech and VC space. We believe that this diversity is a strategic advantage. These start-ups are addressing significant scientific challenges, navigating complex markets and disrupting well-established industries. A diverse leadership team is key to ensuring the resilience and creativity essential for success in such an environment.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Peire and the team face in building the company? Peire acknowledged:
“Working with science in Latin America comes with both cultural and operational hurdles. Many researchers remain in academia, disconnected from entrepreneurship. We’ve worked hard to prove that world-class science can thrive in startups too. Today we already have more than 150 Scientific founders and they are spreading the word and building the trust with scientists in the academia to accelerate this process.”
“Another big challenge has been connecting these companies with global VC. From the beginning, we focused on building that bridge. IndieBio became one of our strongest allies, having already backed 13 GRIDX startups. To date, nearly 60% of our portfolio has raised capital from global investors, over $100 million from 50+ funds worldwide.”
Future Firm Goals
What are some of your firm’s future goals? Peire explained:
“We plan to continue our regional expansion. Brazil is a major focus—home to over 60,000 life science researchers. We also aim to deepen our activity in Mexico, Uruguay and Chile, building on our leadership in Argentina.”
“Later this year, we will begin fundraising for Fund III, with a goal to further scale our impact.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Peire concluded:
“Latin America is a hidden gem for early-stage biotech. We have a deep, highly competitive scientific ecosystem—around 200,000 researchers, with over 60% focused on life sciences. Much of that talent is still in academia.”
“The region is also the most biodiverse in the world, and our scientists understand that biodiversity like no one else. In our own portfolio, we have over 20 companies leveraging biodiversity from Patagonia, the Andes, Antarctica, the Amazon, and more.”
“We’re proving that when science is well-formulated, it can be globally competitive in venture capital.”
