Investment Principal

**_matteria_**_ supports with the dissemination of this opportunity. The referred organization is responsible for the selection process._

**Location and Work Mode**:
Central America or any Mercy Corps Office Location (Remote)

**Who we are**:
Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

Mercy Corps Ventures invests in and catalyzes venture-led solutions to increase the resilience of underserved individuals and communities. Founded in 2015 as the impact investing arm of global development agency, Mercy Corps, we’ve supported 47 early-stage ventures to scale and raise over $400.4 million in follow-on capital. Our portfolio is 48% female-founded and centers around resilience-building solutions in adaptive agriculture and food systems, inclusive fintech, and climate-smart technologies, so that those living in frontier markets can withstand disruption and plan for the future. Through capital and support, piloting new approaches, action-oriented insights, and rigorously managing impact, we catalyze the ecosystem toward smarter, more impactful investments.

As part of our focus on innovative technology, Mercy Corps Ventures works with partners to responsibly pilot test new products and services tailored to un/underbanked and low-income populations.

**Our impact**:
Through our Venture Lab, MCV runs pilots with startup partners to test out innovative technological solutions to major global challenges. To date, we have launched 14 pilots in 10+ countries, deploying over $2M to reach 30,000+ participants and beneficiaries. We have worked with 35 funders and partners (85% from underrepresented groups), and our pilots have an 83% scale-up rate.

These pilots are co-designed alongside pilot partners to test out key hypotheses and learning questions. Pilots are grant-funded by MCV, 6-12 months long, and focused on building an evidence base for the wider ecosystem by transparently sharing insights and lessons learned.

The Venture Lab is focused on a variety of frontier technology solutions including climate smart technologies, agtech and inclusive fintech innovations. Our Climate Venture Lab is focused on catalyzing cutting-edge solutions for climate resilience in emerging markets. We will be piloting new technologies to help the 3.3 billion people whose daily lives are at risk and highly vulnerable to climate change.

**Purpose of the position**:
The Investment Principal will join Mercy Corps Ventures’ growing investment team. They will play a critical role in building out our investment portfolio in Latin America according to our Resilient Future Thesis

The Investment Principal will be an integral member of the investment team and will lead all aspects of the investment process in Central America and Mexico in close collaboration with the Managing Partner and other senior investment team members. They will be involved in the full investment lifecycle, from sourcing, due diligence, negotiations, and closing of seed and early stage direct investments. They will have the opportunity to take an active role on company boards and work closely with portfolio companies. They will be a proactive and natural networker, able to build a deep pipeline of investable opportunities, identify promising deals, and collaborate with our team and extensive roster of advisors to successfully close investments.

This is an opportunity to work in a highly entrepreneurial environment with team members who are passionate about identifying and collaborating with talented entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality. Individuals who would thrive in our environment demonstrate a strong work ethic, self-motivation, intellectual curiosity, emotional intelligence, and humility. They also take their work seriously but know how to have fun along the way. Moreover, they will be an unparalleled opportunity to co-create, foster, and scale the next generation of deeply impactful startups in some of the world’s most dynamic frontier markets.

We are growing significantly over the next 24 months, so there will be a variety of career growth paths for the Investment Principal within our family of funds.

**Key Responsibilities**:
**INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT (70%)**
- Foster strong relationships and strategic partnerships with incubators, accelerators, peer investors and other ecosystem actors throughout MCV target geographies (particularly Central America and Mexico) and target sectors for the region (agtech, agrifoodtech, climate tech).
- Develop a deep and broad pipeline of potential investments that meet the MCV’s investment theses and criteria (>250 annually)
- Leverage MCV advisors, Mercy Corps experts & partners, and your own network to conduct diligence on potential investments
- In collaboratio