Worth nearly $10 billion, Orlando Bravo is the first Puerto-Rican born billionaire. Born and raised on the island territory and now in his mid-50s, he cofounded Thoma Bravo, a private equity and growth capital firm that’s particularly active in acquiring enterprise software companies.
Bravo’s name has been on our radar for a while, especially as we’ve tracked rising donors of color, including on Wall Street. Bravo and his wife Katy started the Bravo Family Foundation in 2017, which focuses on giving young people and leaders of underserved communities in Puerto Rico “equal access to personal and economic advancement opportunities.”
The foundation was launched in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which wreaked havoc across the Caribbean in the fall of 2017, particularly in Puerto Rico, where nearly 3,000 people perished. After an initial focus on disaster relief, the foundation has since expanded to encompass programming and other efforts to empower youth.
Though the Bravo Family Foundation did not respond to IP’s queries by press time, here are a few other things to know about the Bravo family and their philanthropy.
Stepping up during Hurricane Maria and standing up a foundation
After Hurricane Maria swept through Puerto Rico in 2017, millions were left without power, running water and many other basic necessities. Bravo, who has family living on the island, saw a post from a local mayor that inspired him to act. He and Katy quickly stood up the Bravo Family Foundation, assembled a team and set up a supply chain from the U.S. mainland to Puerto Rico. The effort was called Podemos (“We Can”) Puerto Rico, a fund formed by the foundation.
Bravo put up $10 million of his own money to jumpstart Podemos, working in municipalities like San German, Mayaguez, Lares, Utuado and Arroyo. By November, the fund grew to $25 million as other donors, including investors from KKR, Blackstone, Genstar Capital and Bain Capital, stepped up. In those early days, the foundation also supported Centro Esperanza, a youth-focused organization in the Puerto Rican municipality of Loíza, and the environmental organization Instituto De Ciencias Conservacion.
In 2019, Bravo committed $100 million to the foundation to kickstart the next chapter of its work with a focus on promoting entrepreneurship and economic development in Puerto Rico. The foundation supports underserved communities in urban San Juan and rural neighborhoods alike. Commentators have pointed out that U.S. philanthropy tends to shortchange efforts in the nation’s territories, though there was a notable uptick for Puerto Rico after Maria. In Bravo’s case, of course, the interest is personal.
The Bravo Family Foundation reported around $54 million in assets in 2023, with charitable disbursements totaling around $4.5 million that year. It runs several programs like its Rising Entrepreneurs Program, now in its sixth year, which backs social venture startups and pairs promising entrepreneurs with mentors. Its 2024 cohort included Abacrop, a farm management software platform designed by farmers to streamline data collection and analysis, as well as Jibarito de la Cajita, which promotes Puerto Rico’s culture and history through books, toys, games and technology, and educational platform Tuto Edu.
The Bravo Venture Fellowship, meanwhile, expands on the Rising Entrepreneurship program by supporting founders as they scale their businesses beyond Puerto Rico to the mainland U.S. and around the world.
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A suite of youth-oriented programs, and the Bravos’ other giving
More recently, the foundation also started the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs (EYES) Program, which focuses on Puerto Rican high school students and encourages them to work collaboratively and solve community problems. The foundation also launched Bravo Academy, an educational platform for Rising Entrepreneurs Program participants and graduates.
The foundation has also run other programs including a Puerto Rico Exceptional Community Leaders Program, which focuses on grassroots leaders in rural areas of the territory.
The couple, who lost their infant daughter Isabella in 2016, also focus on the health and wellbeing of children. They have supported Columbia University Medical Center’s Neonatal Comfort Care Program and the UCSF Center for Reproductive Health, among other outfits dedicated to helping less-fortunate children. The Bravos have also helped endow faculty scholar and fellow positions at Stanford University’s Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy Research. Orlando Bravo is a Stanford alum, having earned his JD and MBA there after getting his bachelor’s at Brown.
Bravo was also once a top-40 junior tennis player, and he sits on the board of Border Youth Tennis Exchange, which aims to empower youth on the U.S.-Mexico border through tennis, education and cross-border exchange.
Outside of Puerto Rico, the couple have also been interested in strengthening educational opportunities for disadvantaged communities. For instance, the couple has a project in Kenya supporting an orphanage.
Relatively young and still very much engaged in business, Orlando Bravo may yet dedicate more time and money to his philanthropy in the coming decades. A particular area to look at beyond Puerto Rico is Miami, where he and Katy live — alongside a growing cohort of ultra-wealthy philanthropists. But with billions to his name and a foundation that makes its aims clear, he’s a philanthropist worth keeping an eye on.
