Mark Your Calendar: LAVCA Tech Brasil; USD250m+ in Debt Deals

LATAM VENTURE BULLETIN

A must-read roundup of startup deals and news on emerging technologies in Latin America, delivered to over 7,000 investors, entrepreneurs and corporates bi-weekly.

9 May 2024

The LatAm Venture Bulletin is produced by Carlos Ramos de la Vega, LAVCA’s Director of Venture Capital.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

LAVCA Tech Brasil is 21 August 2024

LAVCA Tech Brasil is an annual meeting of LAVCA's network of Brazil-focused VCs and tech investors in São Paulo. This year's meeting will include keynote fireside chats, breakout sessions and networking opportunities designed to build meaningful relationships amongst investors active in the region.

LAVCA Members are invited to join for dinner following the program.

LAVCA Tech Brasil 2024 is made possible with support from LAVCA’s Tech Growth Members. Special thanks to Google for hosting, along with AWS, Qualcomm Ventures, MercadoLibre, Riverwood Capital and SVB, for their continued partnership.

Stay tuned for registration and additional details in the coming weeks. Contact Marcelo Pizzato [email protected] with questions.

Deals

▸ DEBT | Plata, a Mexico-based financial services startup, secured a USD100m warehouse facility from Fasanara Capital.

▸ DEBT | JP Morgan provided a USD80m loan to Merama, a Mexico- and Brazil-based e-commerce brand aggregator.

▸ DEBT |Jeeves, a Latin America-based B2B payments and corporate card platform, secured a USD75m credit facility from Community Investment Management.

▸ US digital infrastructure investor Columbia Capital led a USD40m Series A for Indicium, a Brazilian data solutions startup.

▸ CLEANTECH | Green Energy Park, a Brazil-based hydrogen production plant, raised a USD30m Series A from undisclosed investors.

▸ General Atlantic led an undisclosed Series B+ for QI Tech, a Brazil-based API-based credit issuance platform.

▸ Fintoc, a Chilean API-based payments startup, raised a USD7m Series A from undisclosed investors.

▸ Valor Capital Group and QED Investors led a ~USD5.8m pre-Series A for Vixtra, a Brazilian working capital financing platform focused on imports for SMEs, with participation from NXTP, Endeavor Scale-Up Ventures and Actyus.

▸ Qred, a Brazilian online lending platform, raised ~USD5m through a FIDC (Fundo de Investimentos em Direitos Creditorios) structured by Nau Capital.

▸ Seaya Cathay led a USD4.5m seed round for Reuse, a Mexican refurbished electronics marketplace, with participation from Dalus Capital, IGNIA Partners, Angel Hub, Compusoluciones Ventures and Silence VC.

▸ AGTECH | Smartbreeder, a Brazilian agricultural management platform, raised ~USD3m from EcoEnterprises Fund.

▸ LOGISTICS | Barn Invest led a USD2m seed round for Ruedata, a Colombia- and Mexico-based enterprise vehicle fleet management platform.

▸ HEALTHTECH | Green Rock led a ~USD2m round for Omni, a Brazilian pharmacy voucher management platform.

▸ EDTECH | Canary led a ~USD1.5m pre-seed round for Yuna, a Brazilian edtech platform, with participation from Positive Ventures.

▸ Kortex Ventures led a ~USD1.2m round for Biologix, a Brazilian sleep medication startup, with participation from Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein.

▸ HEALTHTECH | Oliv-e, a Brazilian primary healthcare solutions startup, raised ~USD1m from Oasis Ventures.

▸ EDTECH | BeConfident, a Brazilian education platform for English learners, raised ~USD500k from Latitud and undisclosed investors.

▸ Alexia Ventures invested in CUB, a Brazilian receivables management startup.

▸ IMPAQTO Capital invested in Cusi, an Ecuadorian organic foods startup.

▸ CLEANTECH | SQM Lithium Ventures invested in Movener, a Chilean hybrid-electric vehicles startup.

▸ Amplifica Capital invested in Retorna, a Chilean international money transfer platform.

Funds

▸ ACE Ventures (fka ACE Startups) reached a ~USD10m final close to invest in seed-stage startups in Latin America.

News

▸ Salvy, a Brazil-based B2B virtual telecom operator, is the only startup from Latin America accepted to YC’s latest batch, down from 33 startups in W2022 and 16 in S2022.

▸ CENTRAL BANKS | The Central Bank of Argentina introduced API de Principales Variables, its first API to provide transparent and efficient information access to the data produced by the institution.

▸ CRYPTO | Bancolombia launched a digital asset trading platform through its subsidiary Wenia.

▸ LOGISTICS | SimpliRoute, a Chilean logistics intelligence platform, relocated its HQ to São Paulo.

▸ Times have changed: Modo, the digital wallet backed by Argentina's leading traditional banks, reported Mercado Libre to the National Commission for the Defense of Competition for anticompetitive practices in the payments space.

▸ IMPACT | Impact Alpha reviews the evolution of the impact investing strategy of select Latin American families including Gerdau (Brazil), Sesana (Colombia) and Sánchez-Navarro (Mexico).

▸ Kauffman Fellows published a sentiment survey on GP perspectives and expectations for the macroeconomic and fundraising climate in 2024.

People & Programs

▸ MARK YOUR CALENDAR | LAVCA will be hosting LAVCA Week on 8-11 October 2024 in New York. Stay tuned for announcements about registration opening.

▸ WOMEN-LED | Congrats to Anna Piñol for her promotion to Partner at NFX.

▸ Google for Startups launched AI Academy, a 10-week program to accelerate AI adoption by local startups looking to strengthen their computing and cloud infrastructure strategy.

▸ ABVCAP will host the ABVCAP Congress in São Paulo on 11-12 June. More information here.

▸ Cubo Network will host VC.Vision: Mastering Fundraising and Liquidity for LatAm, its flagship event to connect GPs and LPs actively deploying capital in venture on 14 June in São Paulo. More details here.

Global Tech

▸ Sign up for GPCA’s Global Tech Brief, a monthly newsletter that covers tech activity in Asia, Latin America, Africa, CEE and the Middle East.

LAVCA is now part of GPCA, the Global Private Capital Association, and will continue to operate as a parallel membership organization with its own dedicated team and board.