The purpose of this note is to offer a general profile of private equity investment firms and practices in Latin America as of early 2001. The findings are developed from field interviews conducted by the authors with 20 local and regional funds during December 2000 and January 2001 in the four most prominent countries of the region: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. The sample of sponsors was selected based on their strategy, number of investments, capital under management, and background, and was intended to be as diverse as possible to cover a broad range of practices rather than to focus on a homogeneous subset.