TLDR

📣 KASZEK raises USD975m across two new funds

📣 New rounds for: Cabify, Andes, Leasy, Mecanizou, Bacu, Pacto, Comp, Mamotest, ECSA and Aravita

📣 M&A |  FEMSA acquires Netpay; Credicorp acquires Joinnus; Semantix acquires ATSaúde; Klar acquires Sefia

Funds

▸ KASZEK reached USD975m in final closes across its latest early stage and opportunity funds.

• KASZEK raised USD540m for KASZEK Ventures VI and USD435m for KASZEK Ventures Opportunity-III.
• The total capital raised is in line with KASZEK’s last fundraise, when it raised USD475m and USD525m across its early stage and late-stage vehicles, respectively.
• KASZEK has raised north of USD3.2b to date, according to LAVCA Data.

▸ AGTECH | SP Ventures launched its third flagship fund with a USD80m target to invest in early stage Latin American agtech startups. 

• SP Ventures raised ~USD44m for its second flagship vehicle in 2021.
• Investors in SP Ventures include IFC, Syngenta Ventures and BASF Venture Capital.
• SP Ventures’ latest investments in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico include Erural, Agrolend, Verqor, Puna Bio and Moss.Earth.

▸ CROSSBORDER | 30N Ventures launched Emerging Founders I, its first flagship fund with a USD50m target to invest in startups raising seed through Series B rounds in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa.

• 30N Ventures was co-founded by Tomás Denecken, Juan Luis Palma and Salvador Said.

▸ WEB3 | Honey Island Capital, an investment firm run by EBANX founders, launched an early stage fund with a USD20m target to invest in web3, DeFi and blockchain startups.

• Honey Island Capital launched a ~USD20m fund in 2021 targeting investments in B2B fintech startups raising pre-seed to Series B financing.
• Honey Island Capitals’ recent investments include Toku, Transfeera, WORC, Teva and Liqi Digital.

▸ WOMEN-LED | Brazilian growth equity investor PIPO Capital made a ~USD500k commitment to Cloud9 Capital FIP Multiestrategia, Cloud9 Capital’s first flagship fund to invest in early stage Latin American healthtech, edtech, financial services and consumer startups. 

• Cloud9 Capital was launched by SoftBank Latin America alumni Noah Stern and Felipe Affonso.

▸ BICE Inversiones, the asset management arm of Chilean bank BICE, launched BICE Venture Capital, it's first investment vehicle to participate in VC and growth equity rounds in Chile. 

• BICE Venture Capital is a Chilean peso-denominated fund open to institutional and retail investors; StepStone is reportedly one of its first investors.

Deals

▸ LOGISTICS | Cabify raised USD110m in equity and debt. 

• The undisclosed equity stake was led by Orilla Asset Management and AXIS; Cabify secured ~USD48m in debt from the European Investment Bank as part of the round to develop a zero-emission fleet of EVs in Spain.
• Seven countries in Latin America represent the majority of Cabify’s operations outside of Spain: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

▸ CLEANTECH | Andes, a US-based carbon removal credit platform utilizing microorganisms to transform carbon dioxide into minerals, raised a USD30m Series A from Voyager VC, Yamaha Motor Ventures, Bayer, Cavallo Ventures, KdT Ventures, Venturance, Germin8 and Accelr8. 

• Andes was founded by Chilean Gonzalo Fuenzalida.

▸ DEBT | UK- fintech Lendable invested USD25m in debt in Leasy, a Peruvian car financing platform for ride-sharing drivers.

▸ monashees led a USD14.5m Series A for Mecanizou, a Brazilian B2B auto parts marketplace, with participation from Dalus Capital and FJ Labs, and follow-on from Alexia Ventures.

• Alexia Ventures led a USD4m seed round in February 2022.

▸ FOODTECH | Bacu, a Colombian comfort food restaurant brand, raised a USD6m seed round from Kamay Ventures, H20 Capital, Benchstrength Capital, HoF Capital and Reshape Ventures. 

• Participating angels include Simon Borrero and Enrique Villamarin (Rappi), Ángela Acosta (Morado), Isabella Fernandez (Poke) and Juan Pablo Ortega (Yuno). 

▸ DILA Capital led a USD4m seed round for Pacto, a Mexican restaurant payments platform and on-site express delivery platform, with participation from Polymath Ventures, Grupo Fame and Georgetown Angel Investor Network (GAIN), and follow-on from 500 Global and FEMSA Ventures.

• Pacto raised a USD2m pre-seed round in April 2022.

▸ HRTECH | KASZEK and Canary invested ~USD3.5m in Comp, a Brazilian salary and compensation benchmark platform for startups.

▸ HEALTHTECH | J&J Impact Ventures, the impact investment arm of Johnson & Johnson, led a USD3.3m Series A for Mamotest, an Argentina-based mammogram provider and breast cancer patient medical support platform, with participation from Sonen Capital and Sky High, and follow-on from Banco Combafi and MSD.

• This is Johnson & Johnson’s first known investment in a Latin American startup, according to LAVCA Data.

▸ CRYPTO | ECSA, a crypto startup developing a stablecoin for the Brazilian real, raised a USD3m round from DOMO Invest, YC, Arca Capital, Hong Kong-based investors DP88 and Artichoke, and angel Eduardo Vasconcellos (GIC).

▸ Qualcomm Ventures and 17Sigma led a USD2.5m round for Aravita, a Brazilian computer vision-powered inventory management platform for supermarkets, with participation from Alexia Ventures, Bridge, BigBets and Norte Capital.

• Participating angels include Bernardo Lustosa (ClearSale) and Flávio Jansen (Locaweb).

▸ PROPTECH | Propi, an El Salvador-based residential real estate marketplace, raised a USD2.5m pre-seed round from US-based investor Panorama Capital and others.

▸IoT | IoT startups Meta and Ayga invested ~USD2.2m in Flowen, a sensor-based water distribution and management system. 

• Flowen’s pilot program launched with Brazil’s Corsan (Companhia Riograndense de Saneamento).

▸ AGTECH | AgriAcordo, a Brazilian B2B marketplace for agricultural inputs, raised ~USD1.7m from Primary Ventures, Xperiment and Pampa Star.

▸ HEALTHTECH | Angel investor network NuFund Venture Group led a USD1.7m pre-seed round for ROOK, a US-based aggregator of health data from wearable devices with operations in Latin America, with participation from AlliedVC, Hilltop Venture Partners, Techstars, Harvard Business School Angels, Mana Ventures, MCMA VC, Stadia Ventures and TheSageHouse. 

• ROOK was founded by Mexican Marco Benítez.

▸ HEALTHTECH | Headline invested ~USD1.6m in Fin-X, a Brazilian medical expense and patient payment platform for healthcare professionals. 

• DOMO Invest invested ~USD100k in March 2021.

▸ HRTECH | Jobecam, a Brazilian video-based recruiting platform, raised ~USD800k from Armínio Fraga (Gávea Investimentos), Daniel Gleizer (Banco Central do Brasil) and an undisclosed angel investor.

▸ IoT | BR Angels invested ~USD400k in Inspectral, a Brazilian drone-powered environmental and water resources monitoring platform.

▸ RESALE | BossaNova Investimentos and Anjos do Brasil invested ~USD80k in Re Petit, a Brazilian children's clothing resale marketplace.

▸ BossaNova Investimentos and Brazilian accelerator Ventiur invested ~USD50k in Socii Law, a Brazilian legal contract and corporate law consulting platform for SMEs.

▸ PROPTECH | Sundes, a Chilean short-term vacation rental marketplace, raised USD500k from undisclosed investors.

▸ ANGEL | e-Cross, a pre-launch e-commerce marketplace for international retailers targeting Brazilian consumers, raised ~USD1.2m from undisclosed angels.

▸ ANGEL | Urca Angels led a ~USD200k round for Thirky, a Brazilian QR code-based platform for restaurant advertisers, with participation from Gávea Angels.

▸ ANGEL | Vaka, a Bolivian crowdfunding platform for livestock projects, raised a USD100k pre-seed round from undisclosed angel investors.

Exits​​

▸ BossaNova Investimentos, Raja Ventures and SEBRAE exited Becon, a Brazilian developer of chatbots for WhatsApp, through a ~USD3.6m cash and equity deal to CRM&Bônus, a Brazilian white-label giftback platform for retailers.

• BossaNova, Raja and SEBRAE invested ~USD68k in 2022.
• This is CRM&Bônus’ second acquisition in three months, after buying out Brazilian loyalty platform Giver for ~USD6.6m.

▸ HRTECH | BossaNova Investimentos exited Medie, a Brazilian video platform for post-dismissal employee management, through a sale to Lugar de Gente (LG), a Brazilian employee management platform.

• BossaNova invested in 2018 and followed-on in 2021.
• ▸ WOMEN-LED | Medei was founded by Fernanda Medei. 

▸ LAVCA publishes an annual directory of its VC/Tech members, with profiles on 75+ firms active in Latin America.

Startups​​

▸ M&A | Mexican bottling conglomerate FEMSA completed the acquisition of Netpay, a Mexican B2B payment aggregator. 

• The acquisition was first announced in November 2022.

▸ M&A | Peruvian financial holding Credicorp acquired Joinnus, a Peruvian event ticketing platform, through its CVC fund Krealo. 

• Credicorp also acquired Peruvian e-commerce platform Samishop in June 2022 through its CVC arm.

▸ M&A | Semantix, a Brazilian provider of big data solutions, acquired ATSaúde, a Brazilian open-source database for healthcare professionals.

• Semantix acquired Zetta, a Brazilian health insurance platform, in September 2022, nine months after merging with Alpha Capital, a SPAC led by Rafael Steinhauser formerly of Qualcomm Latin America and Alex Oxenrod of Argentine software company letgo.

▸ M&A | Klar, a Mexican personal finance management and lending platform, acquired Mexican SOFIPO Sefia to include consumer savings accounts within its product offerings. 

• Klar raised a USD70m round led by General Atlantic in June 2022.

▸ POLICY |The Brazilian Central Bank approved two additional startups as certified payment institutions: Pomelo, an Argentine payments infrastructure platform for fintechs launching prepaid cards and credit cards, and Nvio Brasil, the Brazilian subsidiary of Mexican crypto startup Bitso. 

▸ CRYPTO | Argentine crypto startup Ripio partnered with Colombian digital wallet FinZi to launch operations in Colombia. 

• Ripio recently partnered with Visa to launch Ripio Card, a crypto-based credit card in Argentina.

▸ CROSSBORDER | Qlub, a UAE-based payment platform for restaurants, will launch operations in Brazil after raising a USD25m Series A.

• Investors include FinTech Collective, Cherry Ventures, Raed Ventures, Heartcore Capital and Al Dhabi Capital.

▸ Visa is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Pismo, a Brazilian card issue and digital banking platform for SMEs, for USD1.4b, according to Seeking Alpha. 

• Pismo’s investors include Redpoint eventures, Headline, SoftBank Latin America, Amazon, Accel Partners, B3, Falabella Ventures and PruVen Capital among others.

▸ Eric Santos is stepping down as CEO of RD Station (formerly Resultados Digitais), a Brazilian marketing automation platform for small businesses in Latin America. He will remain involved as Executive Chairman.

• Brazilian enterprise software platform TOTVS acquired RD Station in March 2021 at a reported ~USD360m valuation.
• Juliano Tubino, former TOTVS Vice President, will serve as RD Station’s new CEO.

News 

▸ EV | Tesla will build its next Gigafactory in Mexico, with capacity to manufacture up to 750k EVs per year.

• This is Tesla’s first factory in Latin America and its fifth globally after its operations in Austin and Fremont (US), Shanghai (China) and Berlin (Germany).

▸ AR | Meta launched Meta Spark in Colombia, an educational program for Colombian founders to train founders at the intersection of social media and augmented reality. 

▸ METAVERSE | Colombia just had its first judicial meeting in the metaverse through Meta’s Horizon Workrooms. 

▸ INFLATION | Argentina’s annual inflation rate surpassed 100%, the highest in the past three decades.

"There's just nothing left, there's no money, people don't have anything, so how do they buy?"

▸ CROSSBORDER | WSJ reviewed the perspectives of global investors during the 2023 Global Private Capital Conference in New York, including Eric Acher (monashees), Yemi Lalude (TPG), Kuo-Yi Lim (Monk’s Hill Ventures) and Sanjay Nath (Blume Ventures) in Technology Slump Refocuses Startups on Capital Discipline.

▸ Rest of World: Mexicans say some police officers are taking bribes with mobile payment services

“I wasn’t carrying that amount of cash, and then he — very helpfully — said I could transfer the money to a supposedly federal account through my bank’s app.”

People & Programs

▸ MARK YOUR CALENDARS | LAVCA Tech Brasil 2023 (formerly LAVCA Encontro Anual Brasil) will convene leading VCs active in Brazil for a half-day program focused on networking and discussions on 28 June in São Paulo.

• LAVCA Members are welcome to join us for dinner following the program. Stay tuned for additional details…

▸ Astella Investimentos will host a webinar on 11 April with Founding Partner Edson Rigonatti to share how the fund is currently thinking about its investment decisions and the exit landscape. Registration is now open. 

▸ Congratulations to the six startups selected to participate in the 8th edition of Endeavor Argentina’s ScaleUp program: Agree, Celeri, Fidu, Kids Corp, Menta and Seeds. 

▸ The 3rd edition of the VC LatAm Summit will be hosted on 19-20 April in Miami in partnership with eMerge Americas.

• Organizing local associations include: ARCAP, ABVCAP, AMEXCAP, ACVC, ColCapital, ECUACAP, PARCAPY, PECAP and Uruguay XXI. 
• LAVCA Member GPs and LPs are welcome to register; organizers will offer a limited number of complimentary passes to qualified LPs.

▸ Finnovista will host FINNOSUMMIT 2023 on 26-27 September in Mexico City. Registration is now open. 

▸ Quona Capital is looking for an Investment Associate to join its Latin America investment team. Interested candidates based in Mexico City or open to relocating are welcome to apply.

Global Tech

▸ SIGN UP for GPCA’s Global Tech Brief. Edited by LAVCA Senior Advisor Julie Ruvolo, this bi-weekly newsletter covers tech activity in Asia, Latin America, Africa, CEE and the Middle East. Recent issues covered breastmilk innovation and China’s growing EV investment. 

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.