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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.
February 24, 2022
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Editor’s note: The LatAm Venture Bulletin is produced by Carlos Ramos de la Vega, LAVCA’s Director of Venture Capital. Former Editor Julie Ruvolo now publishes GPCA's global newsletter, the Global Tech Brief. | TLDR 📣 M&A | SoFi acquires Riverwood- and Dalus-backed Technisys for USD1.1b
📣 Deals | New rounds for: VALOREO, Neon, Sólides, WAP, Inspectorio, Melonn, Mundi, TPaga, Birdie, R2 and Tiba
📣 Funds | Volpe Capital reaches final close; Google for Startups announces additional commitment to Black Founders Fund; Capria Ventures partners with Cometa
📣 Startups | Chilean foodtech NotCo launches joint venture with Kraft Heinz; Bitso launches in Colombia; Foodology launches in Peru |
| | At a time when VC investment represents 54% of overall private capital investment in Latin America, the 2022 LAVCA Trends in Tech breaks down VC investment data, top deals, highlighted transactions, sector/country trends and most active investors in 2021. 
Notable milestones and emerging trends from this year’s report include:
- Sixteen startups surpassed USD1b+ in disclosed valuation, in parallel with investment records across all major markets and stages.
- Investment in women-led startups reached 26% of capital raised in disclosed rounds over USD1m in 2021.
- Increased specialization in traditionally leading sectors of investment such as fintech and e-commerce, and the emergence of cryptocurrency, blockchain and decentralized finance as a breakout sector.
LAVCA Members can log in and download an accompanying LAVCA Data Pack with fundraising and disclosed closings; exits; all disclosed transactions, sortable by stage, sector and HQ; stage analysis for the major markets, round size analysis, and sector breakouts with year-over-year sector growth. |
| | ▸ SoFi, a US-based consumer finance management platform, acquired Technisys, a digital banking platform with operations in Latin America, the US and Canada in a USD1.1b all-stock transaction. |
| | ▸ BNPL | Keo World, a Miami-based BNPL platform with operations in Mexico, secured USD500m in a debt facility from UK-based Hayfin Capital.
▸ CVC | Spanish bank BBVA led a USD300 Series D in digital bank Neon at a reported USD1b+ valuation.
▸ Warburg Pincus invested USD100m in Sólides, a Brazilian talent management platform. - DGF Investimentos invested USD3.5m in August 2019, in the company’s first institutional capital.
▸ L Catterton led a USD80m Series B for VALOREO, a Mexico-based e-commerce brand aggregator. ▸ Quartz led a ~USD30m round for WAP, a Brazilian home appliances company, with participation from Echo Capital, Malwee and PIPO Capital.
▸ Insight Partners led a USD50m Series B for Inspectorio, a US-based compliance management platform for manufacturing companies with operations in Ecuador, with participation from Matchstick Ventures, Techstars, Flexport and Ecolab.
▸ QED Investors led a USD20m Series A for Melonn, a Colombian e-commerce fulfillment platform, with participation from GFC and Alter Global, and follow-on from Wollef, NFX and PearVC. - Melonn just raised a USD4.5m seed round from Wollef, Somma Capital, PearVC and NFX in January.
▸ FortBrasil, a Brazilian corporate card issuer and lending platform, raised ~USD20m through an FDIC (Fundo de Investimento em Direitos Creditórios).
▸ Union Square Ventures (USV) led a USD16m Series A for Mundi, a Mexican lending platform financing imports/exports for SMEs, with participation from Upper90, FJ Labs, Base10 Partners, Exor, AndBank, Alleycorp, Operator Partners and Gilgamesh Ventures. - DEBT | Mundi secured a USD100m debt facility from SVB in December 2021; Base10 Partners led a USD7.8m round in February 2021.
- This is USV’s third announced deal in the region after alt.bank and ADDI, and an about-face from the firm’s stance on Latin America five years ago.
▸ TPaga, a Colombian mobile payments platform, raised a USD10m Series A from EWA Capital, Mountain Partners, Star 26, Fundación Botnar and New Ventures. - TPaga raised USD2.2m from Green Visor Capital and YC in 2018.
▸ WOMEN-LED | SoftBank and Illuminate Ventures led a USD7m seed round for Birdie, a Brazilian data analytics and market research platform for consumer packaged goods brands, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst and Fusion Capital, and follow-on from Astella Investimentos. ▸ General Catalyst led a USD5.9m seed round for R2, a Mexican embedded lending platform for consumer-facing applications, with participation from FO 166 2nd and YC. R2 was founded by Honduran Roger Larach.
▸ Canary and GFC led a ~USD4.6m seed round for Tiba, a Brazilian mobile-first financial management platform for SMEs.
▸ DEBT | LinKapital, a Brazilian lending platform for SMEs, secured ~USD4.4m in debt from Brazilian credit investor Augme Capital.
▸ Flexio, a Mexican payments automation platform, raised USD3m from Costanoa Ventures, Soma Capital and the Latitud Fund. - Flexio was selected to participate in Village Capital’s 2021 Finance Forward Latin America accelerator program.
▸ PROPTECH | Latitud led a USD1.7m pre-seed round for Pulppo, a Mexican customer management platform for real estate brokers, with participation from Newtopia VC.
▸ BLOCKCHAIN | Broom Ventures led a USD1.6m seed round for Bitsports, a Colombian blockchain-based community building platform for sports clubs.
▸ CRYPTO | Cryptomate, an Argentine peer-to-peer crypto platform, raised USD1.5m from US-based VCs Stacks.ac, Flori Ventures, Gossamer Capital and Grand Park Ventures.
▸ YC led a ~USD1.4m round for Vobi, a Brazilian construction management platform, with participation from MAR Ventures.
▸ EDTECH | Big Bets and K50 led a USD1m round for Livus, a Brazilian education platform enabling independent professionals to launch online courses.
▸ LOGISTICS | KPTL invested ~USD600k in ElloX, a Brazilian international trade management platform.
▸ SECURITY | DOMO Invest and Bossa Nova Investimentos invested ~USD400k in Privacy Tools, a Brazilian data security platform.
▸ NFT | Bossa Nova Investimentos invested in Mafagafo, a Brazilian NFT-based gaming platform. |
| | | | ▸ VELVT, a Brazilian liquidity platform for late-stage VC financing, raised USD200m in a warehousing facility to purchase equity stakes from tech company employees. - GFC led a a ~USD3.4m round in VELVT in December 2021.
▸ Volpe Capital reached a USD102m final close for Fund I. - Volpe’s portfolio includes: Atlas Governance, Seedz, Caju, SaltPay, and UOL Edtech.
▸ Cloud9 Capital, a VC fund launched by SoftBank Latin America alumnus Felipe Affonso Noah Stern, reached a ~USD56m close for its first fund aiming to be the first institutional check for Brazilian early-stage startups.
▸ Google for Startups Brasil announced an additional ~USD1.7m commitment to Black Founders Fund, Google’s investment vehicle for afrodescendente founders. “Meu papel é de alguma maneira de trazer o assunto à discussão e para a concretude. Principalmente, trazendo outros aliados, pessoas não-negras para a causa, que possam fazer mais pela população negra, especialmente a de pele retinta, que sofre as consequências [do racismo] diariamente.”
- Andre Barrence, Google for Startups ▸ Fondo de Capital para Emprendimientos Innovadores (FCEI), a ~USD18m fund of funds launched by the Peruvian Ministry of Production (PRODUCE) and COFIDE, made a USD4m commitment to Salkantay Partners.
▸ Capria Ventures made an undisclosed investment in Cometa III, Cometa’s third fund with a USD100m target. - Cometa’s portfolio includes: Bitso, Kueski, Agrofy, Hackmetrix, Quinio and GAIA.
▸ Favela Fundos reached a ~USD10m close to invest in early-stage startups founded in Brazilian favelas. Favela Fundos was launched by community organizer Celso Athayde (Central Unica das Favelas).
▸ H20 Capital Innovation launched a second fund with a USD50m target to invest in marketplace, fintech and e-commerce startups in Mexico, Colombia and the US. |
| | ▸ M&A | Gupy, a Brazilian recruiting platform, acquired Kenoby, a Brazilian human resource department management platform. - Gupy just raised a ~USD93m round led by Riverwood Capital and SoftBank.
- Astella Investimentos led a ~USD4m round for Kenoby in January 2020.
▸ FOODTECH | Chilean foodtech NotCo partnered with Kraft Heinz to launch Kraft Heinz Not Company, a joint venture to expand Kraft’s plant-based product portfolio. “It helps deliver on our vision to offer more clean, green, and delicious products for consumers. We believe the technology that NotCo brings is revolutionizing the creation of delicious plant-based foods with simpler ingredients.”
- Miguel Patricio, CEO, Kraft Heinz ▸ FOODTECH | Colombian dark kitchen operator Foodology launched operations in Peru. ▸ CRYPTO | Mexican crypto platform Bitso launched operations in Colombia. ▸ TRANSPORTATION | Brazilian bus ticketing startup Buser partnered with VOLL, a Brazilian ride-share services aggregator for business travelers, to launch a corporate travel platform. |
| News ▸ Globant launched operations in Germany. - Germany is the fourth European country Globant is adding to its list, after France, the UK and Spain.
- Globant Ventures, Globant’s CVC arm, recently launched a USD10m fund to invest in startups working to mitigate the negative effects of tech, including issues around data privacy, AI bias, online abuse and polarization. The BeKind Fundis looking at early-stage startups regardless of geography.
▸ CRYPTO | Crypto exchange Binance partnered with Colombian bank Davivienda to launch a crypto-focused pilot program for account holders. - Colombian regulator Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia authorized Binance – alongside another eight crypto platforms – to operate in the country in July 2021.
▸ Mercado Pago is the first platform to be granted a payment initiator license in Brazil, and the first authorized mobile app to embed Brazil’s instant payment system, PIX.
▸ BLOCKCHAIN | KASZEK joined the Ethereum Foundation, Coinbase and Andreessen Horowitz in donating an aggregate of USD15m to the Nomic Foundation, a creator of popular Ethereum developer tools focused on simplifying the development of blockchain-based applications.
▸ The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Bogota Chamber of Commerce launched Centre of Entrepreneurship Bogota, a city hub to support Colombian startups and expand and scale across emerging markets. - The launch follows the sister hubs in Accra, Beirut, Buenos Aires, Casablanca, Istanbul, Jakarta, Lagos and Nairobi.
▸ Women represent only 14% of all board seats in Brazilian public companies, according to Programa Diversidade em Conselho (PDeC), a joint initiative between B3, Instituto Brasileiro de Governança Corporativa (IBGC) and IFC.
▸ Global companies hired 3.9x more tech talent based in Latin America in 2H 2021, compared to 1H 2021, according to a survey from US-based startup Deel. Countries seeing highest demand for technical recruiting include Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. |
| Investors ▸ Fabio Iunis de Paula of Indicator Capital shares the firm’s vision for IoT in Latin America. - Indicator reached a ~USD48m final close for Indicator 2 IoT in May 2021, with commitments from BNDES, Qualcomm Ventures, Banco do Brasil, Motorola/Lenovo, Multilaser and Telefônica Vivo.
“…opportunities in IoT are more detached from the macroeconomic issue. Digital transformation continues. It will continue and will accelerate. Now we have the 5G deployments... All this opens up many new opportunities. We are mainly looking at the technologies, pillars of this ecosystem, whether it be artificial intelligence, sensors and devices, as well as 5G and mobility infrastructure."
- Fabio Iunis de Paula, Indicator Capital ▸ Angie Udry of KASZEK shares her view on the importance of leadership dynamics when setting company culture: “There is no unique formula for establishing leadership to establish culture in a company. Throughout history, there have been great examples of companies where founders have stayed as CEOs and established a deeply-rooted entrepreneur-first culture in the business, while in other cases founders also change roles within the company without necessarily exiting.” ▸ Kieran Gartlan of The Yield Lab talks about the intersection of agtechs and lending platforms in Brazil in Os próximos passos das agfintechs na revolução do crédito para pequenos e médios agricultores. |
| People & Programs LAVCA WEEK | Save the date for LAVCA Week 2022, taking place in person on October 12-14 at the Conrad New York Downtown in New York City. The 2022 conference will convene LAVCA’s unparalleled network of private capital investors from across Latin America, the US, Asia and other global markets for a highly interactive experience, including networking and discussions on the latest trends in private equity, venture capital and other private capital strategies. GPC CONFERENCE | Registration is now open for the GPC Conference in partnership with IFC on April 4-6 at the Conrad New York Downtown in New York City. View program highlights and register here.
▸ Accion Venture Lab is hosting a virtual feedback session for Brazilian women fintech founders today at 3pm BRT. Interested operators can register here.
▸ Flourish Ventures expanded its global team with four new hires to build its local presence in Singapore and Brazil: - Diana Narváez, Investment Associate (São Paulo)
- Pranav Mittal, Senior Investment Analyst (Delhi)
- Su Fen Goh, Investment Associate (Singapore)
- Dapo Ogunfeitimi, Senior Investment Analyst (Washington, DC)
▸ Brazil Venture Capital will host the second edition of Startup Boost Lab, an accelerator program for Brazilian women-led startups. Interested founders are welcome to apply before March 17.
▸ LAVCA is looking for a full-timeLatin America Research Analyst. Interested candidates are welcome to apply.
▸ Dalus Capital is looking for an Investor Relations Analyst to join its team. Interested candidates are welcome to apply.
▸ Elevar Equity is looking for an Investment Analyst based out of Mexico City. Interested candidates are welcome to apply.
▸ Altantico is looking for an Investment Associate to join its São Paulo office. Interested candidates are welcome to apply.
▸ Capria Ventures is looking for a Global Portfolio Value Creation Fellow and a Global Investment Fellow to expand its team. |
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