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Alec Oxenford

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Alec Oxenford
Oxenford in 2024
Argentine Ambassador to the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office
30 October 2024
PresidentJavier Milei
Preceded byGerardo Werthein
Personal details
NationalityArgentine
EducationUniversidad Católica Argentina, BA; Harvard, MBA
OccupationEntrepreneur • Diplomat
Websitehttps://us.letgo.com/en

Alejandro Carlos "Alec" Oxenford is an Argentine entrepreneur and diplomat.[1] He co-founded OLX, and co-founded letgo, a mobile classified ad app in the United States,[2] and is the current Ambassador of Argentina to the United States.

Personal life

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Raised in Argentina,[3] Oxenford received a BA in Business Administration from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and an MBA from Harvard University.

Oxenford is an art collector, focusing on Argentine artists, such as Liliana Porter, Eduardo Navarro, Carlos Huffmann and Martin Legon.[3] His collection includes about 280 pieces.[4] In 2013, he became the president of the arteBA Foundation, the nonprofit that organizes the arteBA art fair, a Latin American event.[3]

Career

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He previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group,[5] and was the CEO of DeRemate.com, an online trading platform in Latin America, which sold to eBay.[6] The story of the company is included in the book Six Billion Shoppers: The Companies Winning the E-Commerce Boom by Peter Erisman.[7] He also co-founded DineroMail.com.[1]

A 2014 article in Fortune Magazine characterized him as a "CEO rock star of sorts" in South America, known for his "staunch contrarianism".[8]

In a 2015 essay in TechCrunch, Oxenford argued that investment in tech companies in emerging markets was dramatically underfunded.[9] In a 2014 essay in Recode, he argued that in the emerging world, instead of "mobile first", users were "mobile only" and the companies which failed to build a "fundamentally mobile option" would be displaced by competitors.[10]

Oxenford received the CNN Internet Leader Award in 2001 and the Entrepreneur Award in 2003. He was elected Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2006.[11]

Alpha Capital merged with Brazilian software company Semantix in November 2021, giving the combined company an initial valuation of about $1 billion.[12]

In 2020, Alec invested in DRIC, Inc, a Brazilian software company, creator and maintainer of an advanced and innovative algorithmic approach, which through Monte Carlo simulations and mathematical modeling has the ability to compress data extremely, which provides better storage rates and transmission, natively encrypted. Its investment was the largest ever made in a startup still in the seed phase, around US$3.5 million [13] which gave the company an initial valuation of around US$20 million.[14][15]


OLX

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In 2006, Oxenford and Fabrice Grinda co-founded OLX, an online classified ads company that operates in 45 countries,[16] with 330 million users and 60 million listings a month.[17] In 2010, a majority of the company was acquired by the South African group Naspers, with Oxenford remaining CEO through 2014.[18] The story of Oxenford's founding of OLX is told in the 2017 book Los Nuevos Reyes Argentinos by Sebastián Catalano,[19] with an overview in La Nación.[20]

letgo

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Oxenford started letgo in 2015, with co-founders Jordi Castello and Enrique Linares, as a smart-phone focused marketplace for buying and selling used goods in the United States; it had 75 million downloads in 2017.[21] In September 2015, he raised $100 million in financing to back the company from Naspers, the majority owner of his other company, OLX.[22] Oxenford raised an additional $100 million in 2016[23] and merged with competitor Wallapop the same year.[24] Oxenford raised $175 million more for letgo in February 2017.[25] In September, 2017, the company confirmed it had a $1 billion valuation.[21] In March 2020, Oxenford joined the board of OfferUp after it merged with letgo.[26]

Alpha capital

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In December 2020, Oxenford co-founded Alpha Capital, a special-purpose acquisition company, with Rafael Steinhauser, with Oxenford serving as CEO and chairman.[27] Alpha Capital closed a $230 million initial public offering on Nasdaq in February 2021, which Oxenford says will be used to invest in Latin American entrepreneurs.[28]

Myelin VC

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In 2020, Oxenford joined a venture capital fund called Myelin VC, which focuses on North America, Europe, and Latin American region.[29] The fund was set up with the goal of providing support for 30-50 startup technology businesses in areas such as biotech, financial technology, and medical technology.[30]

Ambassador to the United States (2023–2024)

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In 2024, he was appointed as the new Ambassador of Argentina to the United States. With extensive experience in the technology sector and a notable entrepreneurial background, Oxenford took on this role committed to strengthening bilateral relations and fostering cooperation between the two nations, despite having no prior diplomatic experience. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that his focus and dedication would be essential in achieving a positive impact on the ties between Argentina and the United States. [31] [32]

References

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  1. ^ a b Zacharias, Maria (2015-05-31). "Alec Oxenford: "El arte es un mundo de contrastes"". www.lanacion.com.ar. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  2. ^ Lunden, Ingrid. "Used goods marketplace LetGo quietly raised $100M more at a $1B+ valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-09-29.
  3. ^ a b c Gleeson, Bridget (2015-05-27). "Meet the Argentine Tech Entrepreneur Who Started His Own Emerging-Art Incubator". Artsy. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  4. ^ Gavasa, Juan (30 May 2015). "Successful, Tenacious: The Most Outstanding Serial Entrepreneurs in Latin America". PanAmericanWorld. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  5. ^ "The Craigslist of emerging markets". Fox Business. 2014-09-22. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  6. ^ "Emerging world's Craigslist". Fox Business. 2015-02-03. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  7. ^ Erisman, Porter (2017-09-26). Six Billion Shoppers: The Companies Winning the Global E-Commerce Boom. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9781250088680.
  8. ^ Griffith, Erin (29 October 2014). "Meet OLX, the biggest Web company you've never heard of". Fortune. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  9. ^ Oxenford, Alec (2015-03-11). "The Internet Is Flat, Now What?". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  10. ^ Oxenford, Alec (2014-04-14). "How Mobile-First Became Mobile-Only in the Emerging World". Recode. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  11. ^ "Alec Oxenford". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2017-09-29.
  12. ^ Millan, Carolina; Marques, Felipe (17 November 2021). "Latin America-Focused SPAC to Mint Billion-Dollar Software Firm Semantix". Bloomberg. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  13. ^ dystrick (2021-04-27). "FJ Labs and Alex Oxenford Invest USD3.5m in Brazilian Data Privacy and Storage Platform DRIC (em português)". LAVCA. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
  14. ^ "Startup brasileira aposta na inclusão digital e está avaliada em U$ 20 MI – Startup" (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2021-05-20. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
  15. ^ Glauce, Cavalcanti (May 18, 2021). "Dric Code develops software to transmit and store data and wants to boost education". Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. O Globo Newspaper.
  16. ^ Mander, Benedict (2016-09-19). "Argentina: home to the majority of Latin America's tech unicorns". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 2016-09-27.
  17. ^ Lourie, Gugu (2017-07-23). "Meet OLX, the Biggest Classified Company that is growing Fast". TechFinancials. Retrieved 2017-09-30.
  18. ^ Perez, Sarah (2015-09-03). "Mobile App Letgo Raises $100 Million From Naspers To Take Over Classifieds In The U.S." TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  19. ^ Catalano, Sebastián (2017). Los Nuevos Reyes Argentinos. PAIDOS IBERICA. ISBN 9789501296334.
  20. ^ "Historias mínimas de los unicornios argentinos". Retrieved 2017-09-29.
  21. ^ a b "Billion-dollar startup Letgo is becoming the go-to app for selling your stuff — here's how it works". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-09-30.
  22. ^ Merced, Michael J. De La (2015-09-03). "South Africa's Naspers Backs Smartphone Start-Up Letgo". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  23. ^ Geron, Tomio (2016-05-10). "Letgo buys fellow mobile classifieds startup Wallapop". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
  24. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (10 May 2016). "Wallapop and LetGo, two Craigslist rivals, merge to take on the U.S. market, raise $100M more". TechCrunch. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  25. ^ Mac, Ryan. "Letgo Lands $175M As It Ups Mobile Marketplace Challenge To Craigslist And OfferUp". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-09-29.
  26. ^ "Online marketplace OfferUp raises $120M, acquires top competitor letgo". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  27. ^ Sakate, Marcelo (24 February 2021). "Alpha Capital's $ 230 million SPAC seeks next Brazilian tech". Exame. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
  28. ^ Krizanovic, Paula (1 March 2021). "Alec Oxenford tells iProfesional the details of the IPO concluded in Nasdaq and in what type of companies Alpha Capital will invest". iprofesional. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
  29. ^ Hall, Christina (25 August 2021). "Myelin launches second venture fund to target North America, Europe, Latin America". TechCrunch. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  30. ^ Del Rio, José (11 September 2021). "Myelin launches second venture fund to target North America, Europe, Latin America". La Nacion (Argentina). Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  31. ^ "Alejandro Oxenford fue designado como nuevo embajador en los Estados Unidos". infobae (in European Spanish). 2024-11-12. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
  32. ^ "Milei appoints Alejandro Oxenford as Argentina's ambassador to the US". Buenos Aires Herald. 2024-11-12. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
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