MKF Group bets on the first paying customer

A founder can have a working product, an enthusiastic audience, and a perfectly respectable pitch deck. Then comes the awkward question: who is going to pay? For José García Herz, founder and managing partner of MKF Group, that question belongs near the beginning of the investment conversation. In a public video, he sets out three commercial tests: a tangible customer benefit, a clear route to market, and disciplined sales execution. The idea has to survive contact with a buyer.

The distance between a product and a business

MKF describes itself as a Latin American financial firm connecting capital with opportunity. Its customers occupy different sides of a transaction: investors seeking investment vehicles, established companies considering financial decisions, and founders trying to turn a venture into a durable business. Education institutions have a place here, too. The common thread is the work required to make an opportunity investable.

Consider the distinction inside García Herz’s commercial checklist. Someone willing to try a product has not necessarily become someone willing to buy it. A useful pitch therefore explains the economic benefit: higher sales, lower costs, or a specific problem solved. A route to market identifies which buyers come first. Execution brings the follow-up, process, and attention that turn that sequence into revenue.

For a founder reading this, the exercise is immediately usable. Put the paying customer on the first page. Explain the benefit in that customer’s language. Name the initial segment and the steps needed to reach it. These are practical implications of the checklist, rather than promises that any particular startup will receive a check.

Three doors into the same financial problem

MKF Capital handles mergers and acquisitions, financial advisory, alternative funds, corporate structuring, portfolio management, and valuations. An established company can approach it over a transaction or capital structure; an investor can approach it over portfolio needs. MKF Ventures works with startup financing, fund vehicles, corporate venture strategies, open innovation, and business development. MKF Education adds venture co-creation and advice on education innovation and investments.

This puts the group between several familiar market categories. It offers transaction expertise associated with a corporate-finance adviser and founder support associated with a venture investor or builder. The distinction is the combination. Whether that combination is useful depends on the assignment: a startup seeking its first institutional check has different needs from a business preparing an acquisition.

The business model combines advisory work, investment management, and venture building. There is no single retail product to subscribe to. A prospective client needs to define the engagement: advice on a deal, management of an investment vehicle, or support for a startup. Those roles carry different responsibilities, and deciding which one is needed is part of choosing the firm.

A partnership with a very specific first check

The clearest expression of MKF’s venture ambitions is Meridian75, created with Colombia’s Cube Ventures. Announced in 2025 at $20 million, the fund targets pre-seed and seed companies across Latin America. Its four areas are education, future of work, finance, and health and wellness. These are sectors where an investment case begins with an everyday problem: learning, earning, accessing money, or staying well.

The announced initial investment range was $100,000 to $500,000. Later financing could bring total exposure to as much as $1.5 million per company. The distinction matters. The fund’s headline size describes the vehicle; the initial check describes what a founder might receive. Neither number is a price for MKF’s advisory services.

The partnership also supplies geography. Its network spans Lima, Bogotá, Medellín, and Miami, with an initial emphasis on Peru and Colombia. Local teams and relationships give the regional ambition a starting point. Cube Ventures and MKF Ventures retain separate institutional identities while managing the fund together. The structure lets them combine capabilities without requiring every activity to become one organization.

Where the sales conversation gets real

A November 2025 agreement with accelerator StartUPC makes the commercial problem more concrete. Reporting described a specialized EdTech program and a connection to MKF Ventures for potential investment conversations. StartUPC’s director identified customer acquisition and closing sales as weak links, and described a greater emphasis on commercial development. That diagnosis belongs to the accelerator, but it helps explain the partnership’s logic.

An education startup needs opportunities to validate its approach and reach institutions. An investor needs businesses that can turn those opportunities into demand. An accelerator can help prepare the company for that conversation. The agreement creates an introduction to possible capital; participation does not guarantee an investment. For founders, that distinction should shape expectations from the outset.

“Empowering Growth.”MKF Group’s stated motto

The group’s recent public activity follows those connections beyond the accelerator. Its news listing places Gregorio Londoño at a family-office investment gathering in Medellín in August 2026, and MKF Ventures at Guatemala’s Volcano Innovation Summit in September. Both belong to the relationship work around investing: meeting potential capital providers, founders, and partners across markets.

For a prospective client, the useful next step is equally concrete. Identify the decision that needs help, then approach the relevant business line. A fundraising question, an acquisition valuation, and an education innovation strategy call for different conversations. MKF’s breadth gives those conversations a shared organizational home.

The useful part is the sequence

MKF’s published team backgrounds include investment banking, private equity, startup founding, and legal advice. García Herz previously worked at MAS Equity Partners and Access SEAF; partner Gregorio Londoño brings startup and investment experience. That mix suits work in which a business plan eventually needs a financial structure, a legal vehicle, and someone prepared to execute.

The approach has conditions. Institutional capital requires an investable proposition, and commercial support needs a product that solves a problem buyers value. A company outside a fund’s stage or sector may need a different investor. What readers can copy is the order of attention: establish the customer benefit, choose the first market, build a repeatable sales process, and make the financing fit the business being built.