TECH SPOTLIGHT

From Belief to Breakout: In Conversation with Endeavor Catalyst

Endeavor Catalyst just launched its fifth flagship fund with a USD300m target. LAVCA sat down with Igor Piquet, Head of Latin America, to get a deep dive on the vision for the new vehicle and key learnings from prior vintages. 

LAVCA: Latin America has long been a cornerstone of Endeavor Catalyst’s portfolio, from early bets in Creditas and NotCo to recent investments like Simetrik. How are you thinking about the region’s role in Fund V?

Igor Piquet: Latin America will remain a major pillar of the portfolio — but the pie is getting bigger. We're not investing less in the region — we’re just doing more everywhere else.

When we launched Fund I in 2012, Endeavor operated in 14 countries, mostly in Latin America. Today, we’re in more than 45 countries with over 600 full-time team members working around the clock to select, support, connect and invest in top-performing companies globally.

Because the fund mirrors Endeavor’s operations and strategic footprint, we’re scaling our investment activity alongside our global presence — and aiming to become one of the most relevant investors in emerging markets.

LAVCA DEAL AWARDS SPOTLIGHT

SP Ventures | Gênica 

In January 2017, SP Ventures invested in Gênica, a Brazil-based agricultural platform that specializes in the development of agronomic inputs derived from living organisms to enhance grower productivity and protect crops from pests.

With SP Ventures' support, Gênica established its own R&D center and proprietary testing fields, significantly strengthening its ability to develop biological solutions tailored to the specific needs of different regions. The company’s growing portfolio of products plays a key role in advancing low-carbon agriculture by improving soil health, increasing crop productivity and enhancing resilience to climate change. In 2024, Gênica's biological inputs were adopted across nine million hectares, replacing approximately 900 tons of chemical products and one million tons of nitrogen fertilizers, preventing 700,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

Deals

▸ Wellington Management led a USD150m Series F for Glean, a US-based enterprise solutions platform, at a reported USD7.2b valuation, with participation from Bicycle Capital, Khosla Ventures, Geodesic Capital, Archerman Capital and follow-on from Altimeter, Capital One Ventures, Citi, Coatue, DST Global, General Catalyst, ICONIQ, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Latitude Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

• Bicycle on their conviction behind joining the round:
  “The best AI companies are, and will continue to be, in Silicon Valley. However, the AI transformation opportunity is global. We want to play a central role in propagating the best AI tools to Latin America – to the startup ecosystem but also to large incumbents that are the engines of all the major economies. After mapping the entire market of AI infrastructure, we identified Glean as the leading enterprise-grade platform to enable AI transformation. Glean already has a sizeable book of business in Latin America (a Mexican customer is their second largest customer, Brazil is already a priority expansion market with several pilots underway).”

▸ Goldman Sachs Asset Management led a USD30m Series B+ for Simetrik, a Colombian B2B platform for automatic financial reconciliation.

• Goldman Sachs Asset Management led a USD55m Series B in February 2024; FinTech Collective led a USD24m Series A in April 2022; Simetrik raised a USD5m seed round led by Cometa in April 2021. 

▸ Revolution Ventures led a USD14.5m Series A for Palla, a US-based cross-border payments platform, with participation from YC, Ardent, Cowboy Ventures, Dash Fund, Uncommon Capital, Meta Fund, Evolution VC, First Check Ventures, Vitalize and DeepWork Capital.

▸ KASZEK and IGNIA Partners led a USD13.6m Series A for Crabi, a Mexico-based automobile insurance platform, with participation from 30N Ventures, Redwood Ventures, Carao Ventures, Newtopia VC and Azuro.

▸ Attom Capital invested in Kueski, a Mexican personal loans provider. 

▸ Quartzo Capital invested ~USD9m in OmniChat, a Brazilian conversational sales platform. 

• KASZEK led a ~USD3.8m round in 2021. 

▸ Magma Partners led a USD5.5m Series A for Frente, a Brazilian digital payments platform.

▸ Hi Ventures led a USD2.1m seed round for Melian (fka Sirvana), an Argentine-based AI-first shopping discovery platform.

▸ Pitchdrive and Íope Ventures, the joint investment arm of Wayra and Telefónica Seguros, led a USD1m round for Foliume, an Uruguay-based insurance claim management platform.

▸ AngelsDeck Global Ventures and Clapper Venture led a USD1m round for Rhino, a Brazilian armored car service. 

• 4Equity Media Ventures invested ~USD1.6m in January. 

▸ M&A | DOMO Invest and Tessera Ventures acquired QR Capital, a Brazilian crypto asset manager holding company.

▸ BIOTECH | Endurance28 led a USD2.8m round for Oncoliq, an Argentine cancer detection startup, with participation from Draper U Ventures, Air Capital, Women in Technology, DIM Health Centers, Sah-lood and undisclosed angels. 

▸ Alexia Ventures led a ~USD900k round for Nekt, a Brazilian data analysis platform. 

▸ KPTL and Cedro Capital invested ~USD620k in GRTS Digital, a Brazilian labor union relations management platform. 

▸ Accordia, a Brazilian corporate finance management platform, raised ~USD365k from undisclosed investors. 

▸ Cemig to invest ~USD290k in clickCompliance, a Brazilian reporting channel platform.

▸ Maker Market, a Brazilian 3D model e-commerce platform, raised ~USD180k from undisclosed angels. 

▸ Nexpon invested ~USD180k in Viajantes de Sorte, a Brazilian travel experience raffle platform. 

▸ Serasa Experian to invest in Yolo Bank, a Brazil-based education loan management platform. 

• Marathon Ventures led a ~USD550k pre-seed round in September 2024. 

Funds

▸ Itaú consolidated Kinea Ventures into its direct investment platform, converting it into a ~USD100m CVC fund and rebranding it to Itau Ventures. 

• The fund will target minority stakes in fintechs and tech-driven startups, maintaining Kinea’s independent governance while aligning with Itaú’s broader innovation strategy.

▸ Petrobras, BNDES and Finep launched a public manager selection process for a ~USD100m CVC fund aimed at financing energy-transition and decarbonization technologies in Brazil. 

• Petrobras will contribute up to ~USD50m (max 49%), BNDES up to ~USD25m (25%) and Finep ~USD12m, with additional investors expected to participate. 
• The fund will focus on areas such as renewables, e-mobility, sustainable fuels, carbon capture and decarbonization.

▸ Hi Ventures partnered with AWS and XALDIGITAL to launch State of AI, the firm’s annual flagship survey to gain insights from founders, investors and corporates on what is driving innovation in the space throughout the region. You can now access the 5-minute survey and visit last year’s edition here.

News

▸ Google launched GAIA, an open-source LLM designed specifically to run on Brazilian Portuguese. 

• GAIA was trained on the largest dataset ever compiled for the language. 
• Corporations and organizations behind GAIA’s development include Google DeepMind, CEIA, Abria, Amadeus AI and Nama. 

▸ Brazil’s Central Bank launched Pix Automatico, a one-time authorization feature to enable instant recurring payments for utilities, subscriptions and even school fees. 

• Startups.com.br reviews the potential impact of Pix Automatico on Brazilian fintechs. 

Global Tech

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