LATAM VENTURE BULLETIN

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.

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

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

Deals

▸ LOGISTICS | Cabify raised USD110m in equity and debt.

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

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

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

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

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

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

▸ 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.

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

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

News

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

▸ 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.

▸ 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.

▸ 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.