How VCs are adapting to meet an increasingly global startup market –

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TechCrunch’s recurring coverage of venture capital trends has taken on an increasingly global tilt as the startup market has expanded to fill every geography. Hence our ramping coverage of India’s startup scene, not to mention our increasing focus on the startups coming out of the African continent.

With so many startups raising so very much money, it can be hard to keep it all straight. But we’re not the only organization with its eyes on upstart technology companies busy adapting to the new global startup reality. Venture capitalists are as well.

We’ve seen VCs shake up their operations to better suit a flat world for technology innovation in recent years. Larger funds with more partners to spread focus, for example, or the creation of country- or region-specific funds.

White Star is one such firm with an increasingly broad focus. The venture group recently closed its third fund, a $360 million vehicle, and TechCrunch caught up with founder Eric Martineau-Fortin a few days back. But instead of chatting about valuations, or sectors, we mostly talked about geographies.

Martineau-Fortin lives in Guernsey, a small island that sits roughly between France and the United Kingdom. Residing between two major landmasses is fitting for the investor, as his firm’s first fund focused on the United States and Europe, roughly splitting investments between the two.

White Star’s second fund expanded its geographical purview to include a modest Asia focus as well. The group’s third fund will split roughly 40/40/20 between America, Europe and Asia, Martineau-Fortin said.

Notably, the group doesn’t actively pursue the Indian market. Which stood out, given how much capital is flowing into the country, but White Star keeps its focus more on the South Korean and Japanese markets, so it can invest in Asia more broadly while not putting India atop its list.

I riffed with Martineau-Fortin about other markets. He had rather positive things to say about Brazil’s startup scene — not a huge surprise with Nubank’s IPO in the offing — and Mexico. More simply, the Latin American venture capital market is respected even by investors that don’t have a focus there.

The world’s venture market remains uneven, despite some flattening. The United States saw $72.3 billion in total VC activity in Q3 2021, per CB Insights data. Asia as a whole saw $50.2 billion. Europe managed $24.2 billion, and Latin America just $5.3 billion. That means that there’s likely arbitrage out there for…