How Mexico Can Unlock Its Next Stage of Growth
General Atlantic recently attended the Milken Institute’s Global Investors’ Symposium in Mexico City, where Martin Escobari, Co-President and Head of Global Growth Equity, joined the panel “Private Equity’s Next Move in Latin America.”
Below, he shares his views on Mexico’s evolving investment landscape and its growing entrepreneurial ecosystem.
When General Atlantic began mapping out the opportunity set of investing in Mexico 13 years ago, we were consistently told that it was impossible for private equity firms to do well in the country. Even a casual observer could see that there were not enough early-stage funds to back entrepreneurs. There was not enough capital to help them scale. There was not, in short, a connection between the full breadth of talent and expertise in Mexico and the global pools of capital. The ecosystem was broken.
Still, we saw its potential. In the decade since General Atlantic established our office in Mexico City, we have invested approximately $3 billion in 14 companies headquartered in Mexico, which have gone on to achieve, on average, 30% growth per year and created a total of over 20,000 new jobs since our investments.1 True to our promise of forging long-term partnerships, we’re still actively invested in 11 of these 14 companies.2 Along the way, we’ve collaborated with entrepreneurs, non-profits, venture capitalists, and local pension fund administrators (AFORES) to help strengthen the country’s investment ecosystem.
Perhaps because of our history, I have never been more optimistic about the opportunities in Mexico than now. There are three main reasons. As one of the greatest beneficiaries of nearshoring,3 Mexico is at the beginning stages of an expansion that should continue to bear fruit for the next 20 years. We expect its political trajectory under President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, meanwhile, to result in policy decisions that enable macro stability and growth. And at the same time, we are seeing the rapid emergence of entrepreneurs who are leveraging technology to solve some of the toughest problems in Mexico, including insecurity, fraud, and a lack of access to quality-of-life measures including high quality financial services, healthcare, sustainable energy, and education.
The foundations for our bullishness are in place. For Mexico to fully embrace its opportunity, however, we believe it will need to demonstrate to other global investors that its past reputation is no longer justified.
It can do that in several ways. First, additional companies need to move through its scarce IPO pipeline. While we are encouraged by performance of recent IPOs, it will likely take many more success stories showcasing the vibrancy of entrepreneurship in the country to attract the attention of Wall Street.
Second, the implementation of the government’s reform agenda needs to accelerate. The country has done an admirable job in removing barriers to bringing in talent, whether from Brazil, Argentina, or China. Now, it needs to remove some of the domestic bottlenecks that keep companies from reaching their full potential.
And finally, Mexico as a culture and a country needs to do more to celebrate entrepreneurship. Its economy has long been dominated by legacy firms operating in industries that do not reward innovation, though that is beginning to change. Thanks in part to the country’s rapid digital transition, more than half of our Mexico portfolio consists of companies that hadn’t been founded when we started investing in the country a decade ago. We believe that it is entrepreneurs like these that will create the jobs of tomorrow.
There are signs that investor confidence is increasing. While Brazil has historically dominated regional flows, Mexico led Latin America in venture capital funding through the first half of 2025,4 deepening its capital pools and injecting fuel into its expanding entrepreneurial ecosystem. At the same time, the country’s attractive macroeconomic fundamentals, including its low levels of debt, have strengthened its currency, providing a stable backdrop for foreign investors.
The investment landscape that we see in Mexico today is fundamentally different than what we experienced a decade ago. Yet as global supply chains shift away from China and Mexico’s economy continues to digitalize, the country has an opportunity to grow into a powerful economic player on the world stage that few could have predicted.
Watch Martin’s full conversation with Mike Milken and José E. Feliciano here.
1As of October 2025.
2As of October 2025.
3Boston Consulting Group, “The Shifting Dynamics of Nearshoring in Mexico,” September 2024.
4The Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America, “2025 Latin American Startup Ecosystem Insights,” August 2025.
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