GREENWICH, Conn., Dec. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Gramercy, a dedicated emerging markets investment manager, today announced the formation of a new Latin American private equity team co-led by Gustavo Ferraro, a Managing Director and Head of Latin American Markets at Gramercy, and David Britts, a Managing Partner at Fuse Capital.

The new team will look to invest in Latin American middle market companies in the technology and technology-enabled industries, such as business services, consumer, education, financial services, healthcare services, industrial, logistics, media, retail, and telecom. The universe of Latin American middle market companies is vast, but often management teams lack the expertise and financial capacity to take advantage of advancements in technology to improve business models while accelerating growth through pan-regional and global expansion.

"We have historically had to turn away what we considered to be some terrific private investment opportunities because we lacked the optimal structure and team to properly support those investments," said Robert Koenigsberger, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Gramercy.  He added, "The addition of David and the formation of this team will allow us to capitalize on our Latin American expertise and give us an edge in identifying the best investments and helping those portfolio companies instill world-class operations, accelerate growth and improve profitability."

Ferraro added, "The strong fundamentals present throughout Latin America, coupled with an emerging middle class with increasing purchase power, are setting the stage for some attractive investment opportunities within the technology, and technology-enabled sectors."

"Latin America has been accelerating regional investment in technology and Internet infrastructure and, as a result, the region is skipping older generation technologies entirely and effectively 'leap frogging' directly into cost-effective, advanced technology solutions," said Britts.

Britts joined Fuse Capital, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund that focuses exclusively on Technology, Media & Telecom, in 2002. The firm, formerly known as ComVentures, is currently winding down its final venture capital funds after a 25-year history and David will remain a Managing Partner at Fuse during this process.  Prior to Fuse, Britts was a General Partner at JPMorgan Partners, the private equity arm of JPMorgan. Before that, he was a Director at DMG Technology Group, which later became Credit Suisse First Boston Technology Group. Earlier in his career, Britts spent time as an Investment Banking Associate at Lehman Brothers in San Francisco, focusing on communications clients.  Britts received his B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

About Gramercy:
Gramercy is a $3.4 billion dedicated emerging markets investment manager based in Greenwich, CT with offices in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico. The firm, founded in 1998, seeks to provide investors with superior risk-adjusted returns through a comprehensive approach to emerging markets supported by a transparent and robust institutional platform. Gramercy offers both alternative and long-only strategies across all asset classes (USD debt, local currency debt, high yield corporate debt, distressed debt, equity, macro, tail risk, private equity and special situations).  www.gramercy.com

SOURCE Gramercy