Alter Global

Alter runs a ground-level scouting model across 16 cities in Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The firm says its current portfolio founders act as country-level scouts for the next generation of entrepreneurs, creating a compounding local network. Since 2015 the team has met with nearly 2,000 founders to build this pipeline, selecting 28 portfolio companies so far.

Alter invests at the early stage, targeting scalable tech ventures before they have widespread access to growth capital. The firm writes first-checks into startups where it can deploy its in-house talent program immediately. Later-stage or growth rounds do not appear to be part of the current disclosed strategy.

The firm embeds Alter Fellows inside portfolio companies to provide data-science and strategy support, with the goal of saving hundreds of employee hours per startup. Alter frames this as closing the operational-resource gap that emerging-market founders face compared to peers in mature ecosystems. The fellows are part of the central firm infrastructure, not contract hires.

Yes — the firm is exclusively focused on what it calls "overlooked places" in Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. It does not invest in North American or European startups, though most of its operational talent and LP base appear to come from those regions.

The firm's website states it was founded in 2015 out of Stanford GSB and is led by a team with deep expertise in emerging tech cities, but it does not name specific partners, managing directors, or investment committee members publicly.