Top 50 Rising Stars 2022 (in alphabetical order by CVC unit): José Daniel Díaz, senior investment professional, Femsa Ventures
Jóse Daniel “JD” Díaz joined Femsa Ventures, the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm of Mexico-headquartered beverage company Femsa, in late 2018 as investment professional, before becoming fund manager in March 2020.
Femsa Ventures makes investments both directly into companies as well as into other investment vehicles. It has made limited partner contributions to Monachees, Mountain Nazca and Valor Capital Group, while direct investments include the likes of grocery delivery service Justo, eyewear brand Ben & Frank and autonomous retailing company Swyft.
Javier Alejandro García Quiroga, director of corporate venturing and growth capital at Femsa, said of Díaz last year: “JD’s work and engagement has been instrumental in both our strategies, and his knowledge and engagement with the best VC funds in Latin America has been impressive.
“He has proven that the fund-of-funds strategy is sound, and has already managed to secure co-investments with them into very promising companies. His due diligence work on Latin American VC funds has been very productive for us, as we have made six limited partner (LP) commitments over the past year. I would be surprised if there are more than two three people that have looked into the best Latin American VC funds with more detailed understanding than JD.”
Before joining Femsa Ventures, Díaz worked in business development for MLAB Ventures – the CVC unit of commercial vehicle parts manufacturer Metalsa – for a year between 2017 and 2018, prior to which he worked for over two years as M&A analyst and M&A senior analyst at Femsa.
He earned bachelor’s degrees in economics and sociology from University of Monterrey.
Fernando Moncada Rivera
Fernando Moncada Rivera is a reporter at Global Corporate Venturing and also host of the CVC Unplugged podcast.
