Francisco Uriarte

Francisco J. Uriarte is a Puerto Rico-based operator, M&A adviser, board member, and private investor. Connelly Capital identifies him as a co-founder and Managing Member with more than 34 years of experience across corporate and entrepreneurial finance, strategy, marketing, operations, and mergers and acquisitions. The firm says he has been directly involved in more than 50 transactions with accumulated value above $765 million across Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States.

Uriarte began his career in 1990 as an engineer at Eli Lilly Industries. Between 1992 and 2002, he worked in Mexico and Puerto Rico across private companies and the Puerto Rico government. In 1998, he co-founded a cheese manufacturing operation with his wife and sold it in 2002. That same year, he co-founded SuperMax with a group of local investors, serving as President and CEO after structuring and negotiating the acquisition of six stores from Walmart as part of an FTC-mandated divestiture; he sold his participation in 2006.

From 2006 to 2014, Uriarte advised local companies through ESP Group. In 2014, he joined Aireko Companies as Partner and President of the Capital & Shared Services Group, where he oversaw the company’s U.S. M&A expansion strategy and executed four transactions with combined values of $20 million. He later returned to advisory and investment work through ESP and Connelly Capital.

Uriarte holds a BS in Industrial Engineering with a minor in Finance from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Inter American University. He is also listed as a Certified Mergers & Acquisitions Advisor, Certified Valuation Analyst, NACD Governance Fellow, Young Presidents’ Organization member, Latino Corporate Directors Association member, chairman of Puerto Rico Medical Defense Insurance Company, and Director Emeritus of Grupo Guayacán.

• Uriarte’s angel activity appears concentrated around Puerto Rico’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. His verified startup investment record includes BUREA, a Puerto Rico-founded mobile loyalty and cashback app that raised seed funding from local angels and Parallel18-linked investors.
• Connelly Capital states its broader positioning as: “We help business owners achieve their goals.” Its advisory focus is privately held business owners needing acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, capital raising, and private equity management.
• Connelly describes its approach as industry-agnostic and owner-oriented, emphasizing operational experience from former founders, owners, operators, lenders, advisers, and investors rather than a traditional investment-banking-only lens.
• For growth capital, Connelly says it helps companies raise equity for startup capital, acquisitions, and aggressive expansion, including forecasts, business plans, valuation work, negotiation with funders, and access to banks, private equity firms, venture capital funds, and private or asset-based lenders.
• Uriarte’s public comments on succession planning show a strong preference for founders who think clearly about governance, continuity, written operating agreements/bylaws/shareholder agreements, and leadership preparation before a sale or generational transition.
• No personal angel check size was found in public sources.