Jamaica’s continued quest to develop a sustainable private equity and venture capital industry has once again been recognised by the Latin American Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LAVCA) Scorecard for 2017/18, moving up five points and ranking a joint 8th with two other countries on the 11-member Scorecard.

Jamaica’s improved ranking puts it on par with Panama and Argentina and represents an improvement on the 2015/16 ranking of 9th place.

“We are very pleased with this improved ranking as our efforts in building the venture capital and private equity ecosystem are being recognised,” states Milverton Reynolds, managing director, Development Bank of Jamaica, which has been tasked with the establishment of a vibrant venture capital and private equity industry for Jamaica.

The report, which was released at www.lavca.org, notes that “one of Jamaica’s strengths is registration and reserve requirements on inward investments. Continued efforts to boost the entrepreneurship ecosystem have been made.”

LAVCA Scorecard ranks the venture capital and private equity environments of countries within the region against very developed counterparts such as the United Kingdom and Israel.

Jamaica’s overall score improved from 46 to 51.

“This is very good news for us and will propel us to continue the work we began in 2012. We want to use this opportunity to pay tribute to our local partners – our hard-working entrepreneurs, government agencies, the regulators, the legal fraternity, fund managers, investors, business service providers, and international development partners – Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank,” said Audrey Richards, project coordinator, Jamaica Venture Capital Programme (JVCP).

The impact of this assessment is that Jamaica is now seen as a credible and increasingly attractive place for private equity and venture capital investors and fund managers, and for entrepreneurs to access finance.

“The focus over the next three years is to ensure that we continue to improve the ranking by targeting the areas recognised as ‘challenges’ – capital markets development, corporate governance, the protection of intellectual property rights, and perceived corruption,” Richards concludes.

The DBJ established the JVCP in 2012 with the specific task of establishing a sustainable venture capital and private equity industry. The DBJ serves as an anchor investor and, to date, has invested a total of US$1.75 million in two funds: Portland JSX Limited II and Caribbean Mezzanine Fund 1. A third fund is expected to come on stream shortly.