Emily Lauren Burg
Linea Capital Plans First Close On Debut Fund By November
By Rimin Dutt
LBO Wire (Dow Jones)
8/24/2005 - Linea Capital LLC, which hopes to close on $10 million by November for its debut fund en route to a $50 million target, has its hopes pinned on the U.S. Hispanic market.
Founded by former Wasserstein Perella & Co. executives Christina Almeida and Emily Burg about a year and a half ago, the firm wants to do both early stage and buyout investments, said Burg. It is likely to see more opportunities on the early stage side, as many companies in the market Linea is targeting are smaller, she said.
Almeida was previously a vice president of emerging markets at Wasserstein. Burg, after working for Wasserstein, moved on to become a senior editor at industry publication The Deal. Both have experience in buyout investing in emerging markets including Latin America, Burg said.
"You have the same investment upside in the U.S. Hispanic market as emerging markets without the political instability of emerging markets," Burg said.
Linea, based in Los Angeles and New York, hopes to reach its $50 million target for the fund over the next couple of years, Burg said. The firm is in talks with several companies and plans to do its first deal at the time of the first closing. Linea likes companies in the marketing, restaurant and money remittance services industries.
Linea plans to invest between $500,000 and $10 million per deal. It also hopes to co-invest along buyout firms to do larger deals.
Linea has lined up some individual investors from Latin America and the U.S. The firm is also targeting institutional investors, said Burg.
Reach Linea Capital at 646-382-5834.