Investor Profile

Marcos Galperin

Founder and long-time leader of MercadoLibre, the region’s most valuable technology company, and one of the most consequential figures in Latin American tech of the past 25 years.

Track record


MercadoLibre

Founded MercadoLibre in Argentina in 1999 as an online marketplace, later expanding into payments (Mercado Pago), logistics and credit across nearly every major Latin American market. The company listed on NASDAQ in 2007 and has since become the region’s most valuable publicly traded technology company.

An alumni network like no other

MercadoLibre’s scale and longevity mean it has produced an unusually large number of alumni who went on to found or fund other startups — several of the other angels profiled on this site have MercadoLibre in their own background.

Personal angel activity

Beyond MercadoLibre itself, Galperin has been reported to personally back early-stage ventures across Latin America, consistent with a broader pattern of successful regional founders reinvesting in the next generation of startups.

How he invests

Galperin’s public profile as an investor is shaped primarily by his role building MercadoLibre rather than a disclosed personal investment portfolio — specific deal-level details of his angel activity are not comprehensively public, so treat any claims beyond his MercadoLibre role with appropriate caution.

His influence on the region’s angel ecosystem is arguably felt more through MercadoLibre’s alumni network — engineers and executives who left to found their own companies — than through direct personal checks alone.

Frequently asked questions

What is Marcos Galperin best known for?
Founding MercadoLibre in 1999 and building it into Latin America’s most valuable publicly traded technology company, spanning e-commerce, payments (Mercado Pago), logistics and credit across the region.
Is Marcos Galperin an active angel investor?
He has been reported to back early-stage companies personally, but a detailed, current portfolio is not comprehensively public — his primary public role remains tied to MercadoLibre. Verify any specific investment claims independently.
Why does MercadoLibre come up so often on lists of LATAM angels?
The company’s scale, 1999 founding date and 2007 IPO gave it more time than most regional peers to produce a large alumni base of engineers and executives who later became founders and angels themselves — a network effect visible across several profiles on this site. See our top angel investors list.