TLDR

​​​​​​📣 DATA | Chilean insurtech Betterfly crosses USD1b valuation

📣 DEALS | New Rounds for: Gupy, Bold, 180 Seguros, Digibee, Tiendamia, Brasil ao Cubo, Nilo Saúde and Moss

📣 M&A | Itaú acquires Ideal; Mexarrend merges with Zinobe

📣 STARTUPS | EBANX postpones US listing; Ualá expands to Colombia; Yummy expands to Ecuador and Panama

LAVCA Data

Latin American venture investment reached USD15.7b in 2021, more than 3x the previous record of USD4.9b in 2019 and more than the previous 10 years of venture investment combined, according to LAVCA data. 2021 was a record year for every major market in the region, as well as for every stage of investment.

LAVCA will release its annual review of tech investment in Latin America next week, ahead of schedule, with new insights including round size analysis. 

Stay tuned for insights on country and sector breakdowns, emerging trends and women-led startups. LAVCA members will have access to transaction-level information on fundraising, investment and exits.

Deals

🦄 Glade Brook Capital Partners led a USD125m Series C for Chilean insurtech Betterfly at a reported USD1b valuation, with participation from Greycroft and Lightrock, and follow-on from QED Investors and DST Global. 

• Betterfly acquired six fintech and hrtech startups in October and raised a USD60m Series B in July 2021. 
• Betterfly will launch operations in seven new countries: Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica.
• Betterfly is the second Chilean startup reaching the USD1b+ benchmark, after NotCo raised a USD235m Series D at a USD1.5b valuation in July 2021.

▸  HRTECH | Riverwood Capital and SoftBank led a ~USD93m round for Gupy, a Brazilian recruiting platform, with follow-on from Oria Capital, Endeavor Catalyst and MAYA Capital. 

• Oria invested~USD8m in May 2021; Valor Capital Group, Canary and MAYA Capital invested previously. 

• This is the largest known investment in a HRtech startup in Latin America, according to LAVCA data.

▸ Tiger Global led a USD55m Series B for Bold, a Colombian payment platform for SMEs, with participation from General Atlantic and Endeavor Catalyst, and follow-on from Piton Capital, GFC, InQLab, Kingsway Capital, Solid Ventures, Grupo Auteco, Amador and Condor Inverlink.
 

▸  INSURTECH | 8VC led a ~USD35.4m round for 180 Seguros, a Brazilian embedded insurance provider for marketplaces and e-commerce platforms, with participation from monashees and Atlantico, and follow-on from Dragoneer, Quartz and Norte Ventures. 

• Canary, Dragoneer and Rainfall Ventures led a USD8m seed round in May 2021. 

▸ Kinea Ventures and Brazilian VC G2D led a USD25m Series A for Digibee, a Brazilian e-commerce digital integration manager for SMEs. 

• SP Ventures led a ~USD2.7m venture debt round in August 2021; GAA Investments led a ~USD5m round in 2020. 

▸  PE | NY-based investor Cartesian Capital acquired a minority stake in Tiendamia, a Miami-based cross-border e-commerce platform with operations in Uruguay, for USD20m. 
 

▸ Brasil ao Cubo, a Brazilian modular construction startup, raised ~USD14.8m from DX Ventures, the CVC arm of Brazilian wood panel manufacturer Duratex.

• Steel producer Gerdau invested ~USD12m in November 2020. 

▸  HEALTHTECH | Nilo Saúde, a Brazilian patient communication and telemedicine platform, raised a USD10m Series A from Canary, MAYA Capital, SoftBank, GFC and Tau Ventures. 
 

▸  CLEANTECH | SP Ventures and US-based VC Acre.VC led a USD10m Series A for Moss, a Brazilian blockchain-based marketplace for companies to trade carbon credits, with participation from Jive Investments and Arrington Capital, and follow-on from The Craftory. 

• The Craftory led a USD1.8m round in December 2020. 

▸  CVC | Brazilian private capital investor Provence Capital led a ~USD10m Series A for Adventures, a Brazilian marketing platform for digital native brands, with participation from Mercado Libre and angels Matthew Derella and Adam Bain (Twitter), and follow-on from Atmos Capital, Arbos, Go4it Capital and Navi. 
 

▸  CRYPTO CVC | Mercado Libre acquired undisclosed stakes in 2TM Group, Mercado Bitcoin’s parent company, and Paxos, a crypto platform powering Mercado Pago in Brazil. 
 

▸  SECURITY | KASZEK, Iporanga Investimentos, GFC and Picus Capital led a ~USD8.4m round for Legiti, a Brazilian cybersecurity startup developing predictive models for preventing e-commerce fraud. 

• KASZEK, GFC and Iporanga invested USD2.5m in December 2020. 

▸  CVC | Brazilian digital bank Sapiensbank invested ~USD8.4m in Allugator, a Brazilian electronics rental platform. 
 

▸ Founders Fund led a USD6m seed round for Vest, a retail platform that allows Latin American consumers to invest in public companies listed on the NASDAQ or NYSE, with participation from Mountain Nazca, Class 5 Global, FJ Labs and Tamarack Global. 

• Angels participating in the round include Carlos Garcia (Kavak), Florian Hagenbuch (Loft), Nico Barawid (Casai), Gerry Giacoman (Clara), Scott Schleifer (Tiger Global) and Brian Barnes (M1 Finance). 

▸ Valor Capital Group led a ~USD6m seed round for Oico, a Brazilian marketplace for construction materials, with participation from Tiger Global and CSN, and follow-on from MAYA Capital and FJ Labs. 

• MAYA Capital and FJ Labs led a USD1.5m pre-seed round in August 2020. 

▸  FOODTECH | Vox Capital led a ~USD5m Series A for Nude, a Brazilian oat milk producer, with participation from Lever VC, Endeavor Scale-Up Ventures, Ecoa Capital and Angel Ventures. 
 

▸  HRTECH | Palenca, a Mexican professional identity verification platform, raised a USD2.6m round from 500 Global, Gilgamesh Ventures, Uncommon Capital, Moving Capital and Kima Ventures, and angels Gerry Giacoman (Clara), Courtney Mclogan (Runa) and Federico Antoni (ALLVP).
 

▸ Indicator Capital invested ~USD2.2m in Beegol, a Brazilian customer experience platform for broadband consumers. 
 

▸  EV | Raizen and Plataforma Capital invested ~USD2m in Tupinamba, a Brazilian developer of charging stations for electric cars. 
 

▸  AGTECH | Brazilian accelerator Futurum Capital led a ~USD1.2m round for Agroforte, a Brazilian lending platform for poultry, swine, eggs and milk producers, with participation from The Yield Lab LatAm, Kalei Ventures and Catálise Investimentos. 
 

▸  EDTECH | EWA Capital invested ~USD600k in Vida de Assessor, a Brazilian education platform for independent financial advisors. 
 

▸  HEALTHTECH | DOMO Invest led a ~USD180k round for Vacinas.net, a Brazilian vaccination services marketplace. 
 

▸  HRTECH | Brazilian venture studio Leonora Ventures invested in Cizino, a Brazilian employee management platform. 
 

▸  AGTECH | Latin Leap invested in Agrizon, a San Francisco-based e-commerce wholesale marketplace for agricultural producers with operations in Ecuador. 

🦄 View LAVCA’s Unicorn Leaderboard
for the latest list of LatAm unicorns. 
 

Exits / M&A

▸  M&A | Banco Itaú acquired a 50.1% stake in Ideal, a Brazilian digital brokerage platform for retail investing on the B3. 

• KASZEK led a ~USD20m Series A in September 2020.

▸  M&A | Mexarrend, a Mexican asset leasing company backed by Colony Capital, merged with Zinobe, a Colombian lending platform backed by QED Investors. The new platform will operate under the name Tangelo. 

• Zinobe announced a joint venture with Mexarrend in September 2020 to expand to Mexico. 

▸  M&A | Walmart Chile acquired Babytuto, a Chilean baby accessories e-commerce platform. 

• This is Walmart’s first known acquisition of a Chilean startup.

▸  EXIT | Bossa Nova Investimentos exited Conpass, a Brazilian customer experience management platform, through a sale to Omie, a Brazilian ERP for SMEs.

• This is the third known acquisition by Omie in the past six months after acquiring Linker and G-Click. 
• Omie raised a ~USD116m Series C led by SoftBank in August. 

Funds

▸  SPAC | LatAmGrowth, a SPAC led by Eduardo Cortina of Colony Partners and Gerard Cremoux of UBS, listed on the NASDAQ at a USD130m valuation. 

• LatAmGrowth is the latest of a series of Latin America-focused SPACs seeking to merge with a high-growth technology company in the region: Others include MEKA of KASZEK and Mercado Libre, Valor Latitude of Valor Capital Group and Dila Capital Acquisition of DILA Capital. 

▸ Colombian VC Marathon Ventures reached a USD26m close for its first fund targeting investments in seed-stage startups in Latin America. 

• Marathon’s portfolio includes Tul, Meru, Wonder Brands and Neivor.

▸ XP made an undisclosed commitment in Headline, an early-stage fund launched by former Redpoint eventures Partner Romero Rodrigues. 
 

▸  IMPACT | Bamboo Capital Partners partnered with KTPL to launch an impact fund with a USD100m target to invest in startups working on access to energy, healthcare, education and financial services. 
 

▸  CVC | Banco do Brasil launched two funds to invest in early-stage agtechs, fintechs and govtechs with clear impact-focused metrics. 

• Banco do Brasil has also made commitments to Astella Investimentos, SP Ventures and Indicator Capital. 

Startups

▸ Argentine fintech Ualá launched operations in Colombia. 

• Ualá raised a USD350m Series D led by SoftBank and Tencent in August 2021 at a reported USD2.45b valuation. 

▸ Yummy, a San Francisco-based ridesharing and food delivery app with operations in Venezuela, launched operations in Ecuador and Panama. 

• Anthos Capital led a USD18m Series A in November in the largest known Series A investment for a Venezuelan startup, according to LAVCA data. 

▸  PAYMENTS | Uruguayan payments company dLocal partnered with Rappi to enable Rappi’s Brazilian customers to complete transactions using PIX as a payment method. 
 

▸  CRYPTO | Colombian proptech La Haus announced the completion of the first property sale in the Colombian residential market in exchange for Bitcoin. 
 

▸  EDTECH | Colombian edtech Platzi partnered with Homely, a Mexican home and business cleaning marketplace, to provide 500 scholarships for household workers to learn English in Mexico.
 

▸ Rest of World reviews the growth of Turpi, a food delivery app employing the Venezuelan diaspora in Ecuador.

Venezuelans make up over 60% of the country’s delivery drivers, with more than 4,000 working for apps such as PedidosYa and Rappi.

News

▸ EBANX postponed its listing in the US given current market volatility, according to Bloomberg. 

• Advent International invested USD430m in June 2021. 

▸  BLOCKCHAIN | Telefonica Tech, Grupo Telefonica’s digital business unit, joined LACChain, a regional alliance led by IDB Lab to promote the use of public blockchain applications in Latin America. 

▸  CRYPTO | ARK Invest, Cathie Wood’s actively managed innovation fund, reviews the state of crypto adoption in El Salvador. 

• More people have Bitcoin wallets (3.8m) than traditional bank accounts (1.9m), according to ARK. 
• Chivo, the government's digital wallet, was settling USD2m in remittances daily as of Q3 2021, representing 12% of El Salvador’s annual remittances and more than 2% of total GDP.

▸ Rest of World reviews the role of Mexican salespeople in bringing internet services to rural communities in The last internet dealers of rural Mexico.

Business for internet dealers is tough: there’s competition from copycat neighbors who have taken to selling their own, often better quality, internet. Then there’s the Mexican government, which has promised to provide universal internet coverage, and telecoms companies, which increasingly are finally starting to reach small rural communities. 

Investors

▸ Marcelo Claure stepped down as COO of SoftBank after ongoing negotiations with Masa Son for a USD2b compensation package, according to the NYT. 

• Michel Combes, former CEO of Sprint, was appointed CEO of SoftBank Group International. 

▸ Alex Szapiro of SoftBank Brasil shares his view on the pace of early-stage investing: “Investimentos mantêm-se aquecidos em 2022.”
 

▸ Carolina Pascowitch of Astella Investimentos shares Astella’s valuation framework.

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.
 

▸ Meta appointed Agustina Fainguersch as new Head for South America. 

• Agustina is also CEO of Wolox. 

▸ LAVCA is looking for a full-time Latin 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. 

Global Tech

☞ Sign up for GPCA’sGlobal Tech Brief. Edited by LAVCA’s Julie Ruvolo, this bi-weekly newsletter 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.