TLDR

📣 Deals | New rounds for: Habi, Revelo, Eureciclo, Zippi, Moova, Clicampo, Mono, Negocios Verdes, Cubbo, Kriptos and Prota Games

📣 CVC Funds | Bioceres, Vale Ventures, Suzano Ventures
 

LAVCA News

▸ Congratulations to LAVCA’s Executive Director Angela Maria Tafur for her appointment to Grupo Sura’s board of directors. 
 

LAVCA WEEK 2022 | Save the date for LAVCA Week 2022, taking place in person on October 11-14 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 our flagship meeting, which will include networking and discussions on the latest trends in PE, VC and other private capital strategies.

Deals

▸ DEBT | Colombian proptech Habi secured a USD75m credit line from Triple Point Capital and others. 

• Habi raised a USD200m Series C at a reported USD1b+ valuation in May 2022 led by Homebrew and SoftBank Latin America, and a USD100m Series B in July 2021 – the largest known Series B for a Colombian startup at the time.

▸ HRTECH | Bewater Ventures led a USD28m Series B for Revelo, a Brazil-based job matching platform, with participation from Dalus Capital, Valor Capital Group, IFC and FJ Labs. 

• IFC led a ~USD14m round in September 2019. 

▸ CLEANTECH | Oria Capital led a ~USD20m Series B for Eureciclo, a Brazilian recycling management platform, with follow-on from Endeavor Scale-Up, Redpoint eventures and Rise Ventures. 

▸ HRTECH | Tiger Global led a USD16m Series A for Zippi, a Brazilian payroll and credit platform for independent contractors, with participation from Volpe Capital, YC, Rainfall Ventures, Globo Ventures, Hummingbird, Mantis, MSA Capital and Soma Capital. 

▸ LOGISTICS | Moova, an Argentine route optimization software platform for last-mile delivery, raised USD10m from Alaya Capital, FJ Labs, Wayra, MatterScale Ventures, Kalei Ventures, iThink VC, Parser Digital, Reflect Ventures, Murchinson VC, Insudpharma, Cosmen Family Office and Tasa Logistica. 

• Movile led an undisclosed Series A in February 2021. 

▸ LOGISTICS | Valor Capital Group and MAYA Capital led a USD7.5m seed round for Clicampo, a Brazilian operations and logistics management platform connecting rural producers with restaurants and retailers.

• Angels participating included Marcelo Abritta (Buser), Luis Cascão (Truepay) and Rafael Costa (Across Capital). 

▸ Tiger Global led a USD6m seed round for Mono, a Colombian digital debit card issuer, with participation from Soma Capital and YC.

▸ MINING | GK Ventures invested ~USD6m in Negocios Verdes, a Brazilian holding company formed by Brazilian companies Rolth do Brasil and Sulminas to develop sustainability processes for the steel and mining industry.

▸ SV Latam Capital and Gerdau Next Ventures made an undisclosed pre-Series A follow-on investment in Cubbo, a Colombia- and Brazil-based e-commerce fulfillment platform.

▸ SECURITY | Act One Ventures led a USD3.1m round for Kriptos, an Ecuadorian cybersecurity attack prevention platform for enterprises, with participation from CompuSoluciones Ventures and SVLA Venture Capital, and follow-on from BuenTrip Ventures.

• BuenTrip Ventures led a USD1.25m round in January 2021.

▸ NFT | Prota Games, a Brazilian NFT gaming platform, raised a ~USD2.8m round from Iporanga Ventures, Big Bets and Class 5 Global. 

▸ WOMEN-LED | SP Ventures led a USD2.5m round for Verqor, a Mexican lending and wholesale marketplace for rural producers, with participation from Amplifica Capital, Magma Partners, Mercy Corps Ventures and Angel Hub.

▸ Cluvi, a Colombian discount and cash back management platform for restaurants, raised a USD2.5m seed round from Cometa, FEMSA Ventures and angel Carolina García (Chiper).

▸ EDTECH | Kurios, a US-based corporate training platform focused on Mexico, Colombia and Peru, raised a USD2.3m seed round from YC and others. 

▸ HEALTHTECH | Astella Investimentos led a ~USD1.3m pre-seed round for Guiavet, a Brazilian pet health monitoring platform, with participation from angels Claudio Gandelman (DeliRec), and Luiz Tângari and Carlos Gonçalves (Strider).

▸ Carabela, Angel Ventures’ seed fund, invested in Dooper, a Mexican consumer marketplace connecting SMEs with gig workers for product distribution, with participation from Blue Zone Ventures.

▸ Juancho Te Presta, a Colombian consumer credit platform, raised a USD550k round from undisclosed angels. 

▸ SECURITY | BR Angels invested ~USD300k in Minds Digital, a Brazilian biometric-based identity verification platform for financial transactions.

▸ SaaSholic led a USD130k round for Maestro ABM, a Brazilian account-based marketing platform.

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

Funds

▸ Headline reached a ~USD183m final close for Headline I, its first flagship fund to invest in early-stage Latin American startups. Headline was founded by former Buscapé founder and Redpoint eventures Partner Romero Rodrigues.

• Headline I had an original target of ~USD167m.
• Headline’s portfolio includes Creditas, VELVT and Pismo.

▸ MAYA Capital reached a USD100m final close for its second flagship fund. 

• MAYA Capital’s portfolio includes NotCo, Gupy, Alice, Belvo, Zubale, Inventa, Merama, Nuvocargo and TerraMagna. 
• MAYA Capital reached a USD40m final close for its first fund in October 2020.

▸ Angel Ventures launched AV Latam Fund III, its third flagship fund with a USD120m target to invest in early-stage startups in Latin America. 

• Angel Ventures also announced the opening of an office in São Paulo.
• Angel Ventures’ portfolio includes Kueski, VALOREO, Urbvan, Aprende Institute, Mozper and Terapify.

▸ Camila Farani of G2 Capital partnered with Flavio Pripas of Redpoint eventures and Geraldo Neto of GAA Investments to launch Staged Ventures, an early-stage fund with a USD50m target to invest in Brazilian startups through direct financings and secondaries.

▸ CROSSBORDER | Norwegian VC Antler launched a USD50m fund to invest in early-stage Latin American startups, and opened an office in São Paulo. 

▸ CVC | Argentine biotech startup Bioceres launched a USD200m CVC fund to invest in early-stage life sciences startups.

▸ CVC | Vale, a Brazilian mining company, launched Vale Ventures, a USD100m CVC fund to invest in startups focused on decarbonization in mining processes and the development of energy transition metals.

▸ CVC | Suzano, a Brazilian paper and eucalyptus pulp producer, launched Suzano Ventures, a USD70m CVC fund to invest in carbon sequestration and agtech startups.

▸ WEB3 | Brazilian professional surfer Gabriel Medina partnered with Ricardo Siqueira (maxiPago!) and MFO Carpa to launch Kauai Ventures, an early-stage fund to invest in Web3 startups with capital or through a media-for-equity model.

Startups

▸ M&A | Revelo, a US- and Brazil-based job matching platform, acquired Listopro, a Mexican technical talent recruiting platform.

• Revelo raised a ~USD14m round led by IFC with participation from Valor Capital Group, Dalus Capital and FJ Labs in September 2019.

▸ M&A | Peruvian financial holding Credicorp acquired Samishop, a Peruvian e-commerce solutions platform, through its CVC fund Krealo. 

▸ JOKR, a NY- and Berlin-based last-mile retail delivery platform founded by former SoftBank Managing Partner Ralf Wenzel, will make Latin America its primary focus. 

• The recent shift includes closing its US operations. 
• JOKR raised a USD260m Series B led by GGV Capital at a USD1.2b valuation in December 2021.

▸ Rappi partnered with Itaú to launch RappiCard, its first consumer credit product in Chile. 

▸ HRTECH | Runa, a Mexico-based automated payroll platform, launched Seguros Runa, an employee health insurance platform for SMEs.

• Runa raised a USD3.5m seed round led by Salesforce Ventures in June 2018.

▸ Mexican digital freight forwarder Nowports is the newest sponsor of Club de Futbol Monterrey, a Mexican soccer team. 

• This follows a recent trend of startups sponsoring sports teams across Latin America including Mexican crypto platform Bitso sponsoring Brazil’s São Paulo Futebol Clube, Kavak sponsoring the F1, and Rappi sponsoring the Colombian national soccer team. 

▸ TechCrunch cites LAVCA data in Investors Show Latin America Fintech Startups the Money. 

Now, with the global venture slowdown under way, it’s notable that Latin American fintechs continue to raise large rounds in the second quarter of this year.

News

▸ Google announced a USD1.2b commitment to Latin America over the next five years focused on economic development and digital transformation in the public and private sector.

• Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, will receive USD300m out of the total commitment to finance its regional initiatives. 
• Google made a similar USD1b commitment to its regional operations in Africa in October.
• Google for Startups Brasil launched a technical program to train Brazilian afrodescendente individuals interested in a software developer career. 

▸ CRYPTO | Mercado Libre partnered with Mastercard to provide real-time monitoring and risk management to its crypto operations in Brazil. 

▸ LABS reviews the growth that open source instant payment platform PIX has had in Brazil in PIX revolution: how instant payment put Brazil at the forefront of global financial innovation.

▸ Rest of World: Why the crypto crash hits different in Latin America

▸ COLOMBIA | Gustavo Petro won the Colombian presidential election on Sunday with 50%+ of the votes against Rodolfo Hernandez.

• This is the first time Colombia will have a left-wing president. 

New York Times: "All eyes are now on Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, where former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leads polls to unseat President Jair Bolsonaro in October."

Investors

▸ monashees launched a Mexico City office led by Principal Fabiola Quinzaños.

• Mexico-based startups in monashees’ portfolio include Nowports, Clara and Merama.

▸ WEB3 | Valor Capital Group announced they will allocate up to 20% of their new USD500m flagship and opportunity funds to invest in Web3 startups, including decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

▸ Andy Tsao of SVB shares his view behind the emerging trends in the fintech ecosystem with a primary focus on Mexico and Brazil and the motivation behind SVB’s new USD30m venture debt fund in partnership with Partners for Growth. 

▸ Laura Constantini of Astella Investimentos shares her view on the differing approach to assessing price and value from the perspective of an early-stage technology investor. 

▸ Glisco Partners partnered with Endeavor Mexico to publish Insights: Venture Capital and Growth Equity Ecosystem in Latin America, a report mapping the composition of the VC/tech landscape at a regional level. 

• Alfredo Castellanos of Glisco interviewed Carlos Garcia of Kavak, Adalberto Flores of Kueski, Liza Schvartzman of Fitpass, Carlos Salinas of Zebrands and Javier Mata of Yalo during the report launch in CDMX. 

People & Programs

▸ Congratulations to Cesar Carvalho of Gympass for winning EY’s US Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

▸ DEEPTECH | Petrobras launched Programa Petrobras Conexões para Inovação, the fourth edition of its program to invest ~USD4m in deeptech startups in Brazil. Applications are now open. 

▸ Emerging VC Fellows, a Brazilian initiative focused on pre-partner level VC investors, launched a region-wide survey for PE and VC GPs focused on ESG criteria for investment analysis and portfolio management. All investors active in Latin America are welcome to participate.

▸ Bayer Mexico launched its second Digital Health Bootcamp for early-stage healthtech startups. Interested founders are welcome to apply.

LAVCA Job Board

▸ SVB is looking for a Director and VP to lead its SVB Startup Banking LATAM platform focused on client and partner engagement. Applications are open to candidates with at least 10 years of experience for the Director position and at least three years of experience for the VP position. 

▸ Elevar Equity is looking for a Financial Analyst to join their team in Mexico City. Interested candidates are welcome to apply. 

▸ Zendesk is looking for a Startup Partnerships Manager to join their team out of their São Paulo office. Candidates with at least five years of experience are welcome to apply. 

LAVCA Members: We welcome your job recs for future editions. Email cramos@lavca.org with information on relevant opportunities.

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.