TLDR

📣 Last call for nominations | 2022 LAVCA Women Investors in Latin American Tech

📣 New rounds for CantuStore, Finkargo, Muncher, Agrolend, Ping, Tul, Yave and Flapper

📣 Startups | Betterfly acquires SeuVale; Tiendanube launches in Colombia
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📣 News | MercadoLibre enters proptech; Brazilian Central Bank open-sources PIX

Last Call for Nominations

 

LAVCA is accepting nominations for our annual lists of Top Women Investors and Emerging Women Investors in Latin American Tech.

Access the nomination form to nominate senior-, mid-, and junior-level female investment professionals deploying capital from a VC fund, and women angel investors investing in 3+ LatAm tech startups a year.

⏳ LAST CALL: nominations close this Friday

Deals

▸ L Catterton acquired a ~USD116m minority stake in CantuStore, a Brazilian D2C tire distributor. 

▸ DEBT | Finkargo, a Colombian import finance platform, secured a USD75m structured credit line from Community Investment Management.

• Quona Capital and MAYA Capital led a USD7.5m seed round in April. 

▸ FOODTECH | Glisco Partners led a USD27m Series B for Muncher, a Colombia-based dark kitchen operator reusing trade containers for food distribution, with follow-on from FEMSA Ventures and TMT Investments. 

• TMT Investments and Copernion Capital led a USD22m Series A in May 2021. 

▸ AGTECH | Lightrock led a USD27m Series B for Agrolend, a Brazilian unsecured lender for small crop farmers, with participation from Yara Growth Ventures and Mago Capital, and follow-on from Valor Capital Group, SP Ventures, Continental Grain Company, Provence Capital and Barn Invest.

• Valor Capital Group led a ~USD16m Series A in January.

▸ Ping, an Argentine payments platform for remote freelancers working internationally, raised a USD15m seed round seed round from YC, Race Capital, BlockTower, Danhua Capital, Signum Capital and Goat Capital.

• Ping was selected to participate in YC’s S22 batch. 

▸ DEBT | Tul, a Colombian supply chain management platform connecting construction material manufacturers with SMEs, secured USD7.7m in debt from Bancolombia.

• 8VC led a USD181m Series B in January; Vine Capital led a USD4m round in November 2020.

▸ Better Tomorrow Ventures and Metaprop led a USD7.5m round for Yave, a Mexican embedded mortgage lender, with participation from DILA Capital, Wollef, Goodwater Capital, Magma Partners, Activant, Moore Capital, Fintech Fund, Cross River Capital and Vinte.

▸ Brazilian investors DXA Invest and Arien led a ~USD6m Series A+ for Flapper, a Brazilian on-demand private aviation platform.

• ACE Startups and Aerotec led a ~USD2m Series A earlier this year. 

▸ Liti, a Brazilian health monitoring platform focused on weight control, raised a ~USD4.2m round from monashees, Canary, Grão, Norte Ventures, Eclipseon, Newtopia and The Fund.

▸ Costanoa Ventures led a USD4.1m seed round for Trully, a Mexican KYC and identity theft prevention platform, with participation from angels Pablo Viguera (Belvo) and Juan Pablo Ortega (Yuno).

▸ PROPTECH | Terracotta Ventures led a ~USD3.8m seed round for Approva Fácil, a Brazilian residential real estate marketplace for low-income Brazilians.

▸ DGF Investimentos led a ~USD3m round for Looqbox, a Brazilian developer of corporate search engines, with participation from HiPartners and Locaweb. 

▸ AGTECH | SP Ventures led a ~USD2m pre-Series A for Erural, a Brazilian cattle and beef auction marketplace, with participation from DOMO Invest, Prana Capital and Lighthouse Invest. 

• Lighthouse invested ~USD300k in October 2021.

▸ Option Venture Studio led a USD2m equity and debt round for Levannta, a Chilean lending platform for subscription revenue-based companies.

▸ Left Lane Capital led a USD2m seed round for Pet’s Table, a Mexican D2C healthy food brand for dogs, with participation from Goodwater Capital. 

▸ EDTECH | Grupo RPP invested USD1.4m in Netzun, a Peruvian upskilling platform integrated with university certifications.

▸ Perfekto, a Mexican subscription platform of imperfect produce, raised a USD1.1m pre-seed round from Goodwater Capital and Asymmetry Ventures. 

▸ DOMO Invest and US-based investor Partner Ventures invested ~USD800k in Next Fit, a Brazilian class management platform for personal trainers.

▸ DEBT | Asset manager Zurich Chile invested USD500k in convertible debt in Wild Lama, a Chilean sustainable clothing brand.

▸ Ulu Ventures led a USD400k pre-seed round for Leadsales, a Mexican CRM for Whatsapp, with participation from Ganas Ventures, Cross Ocean Ventures, AngelHub, TheBoardPeru and angel Theo Hamaoui (Loft).

▸ Wayra Hispam invested in Aora, an Ecuadorian home and office repair and maintenance platform.

• Aora was selected to participate in 500 Global Somos Lucha’ Batch 15.

▸ HEALTHTECH | GK Ventures led an undisclosed Series A for Neuralmed, a Brazilian medical record analysis platform for hospitals, with participation from Kortex Ventures.

• Grupo NotreDame Intermédica led a ~USD2m round for NeuralMed in August 2021.

▸ PROPTECH | Globo Ventures made an undisclosed investment in Brazilian proptech QuintoAndar.

Startups 

▸ M&A |  Chilean insurtech Betterfly acquired SeuVale, a Brazilian modular employee benefits platform. 

• Betterfly raised a USD125m Series C at a USD1b valuation earlier this year. 

▸ Argentine e-commerce platform Tiendanube launched operations in Colombia with a USD10m investment from its balance sheet. Tiendanube also operates in Brazil and Argentina.

• Tiger Global and Insight Partners led a USD500m round in August 2021 at a USD3.1b valuation. 

▸ clicOH, an Argentine e-commerce shipment monitoring platform, launched operations in Peru with a USD5m investment from its balance sheet. 

• Tiger Global led a USD25m Series A in June 2022.

▸ INSURTECH | Jooycar, a Chilean auto insurance platform leveraging real-time automotive data, launched operations in Mexico. 

• Chilean vehicle manufacturer Grupo Emasa invested USD2m in November 2021.

▸ CROSSBORDER | Twitter power users in Brazil began switching in droves to Indian social media app Koo as the future of the US-based app remains uncertain. 

• Koo had more than one million Brazilian sign ups within three days of its launch
• Koo has raised USD40m+ in VC funding.

News 

▸ Uruguay-based payments platform dLocal saw its share price drop 50% after short-seller Muddy Waters issued a report on the company’s potential misuse of clients funds, coordinated sale of insider’s stakes and mismatch on corporate balance sheet. 

• dLocal’s response: “The report contains numerous inaccurate statements, groundless claims and speculation. Short seller reports are often designed to drive the stock price downwards to serve the short seller’s interests to the detriment of the company’s shareholders. We caution shareholders from making investment decisions based on this report. Dlocal will rebut the allegations in the appropriate forum in due course.”
   
• dLocal raised USD618m in its IPO on the NASDAQ in July 2021 at a reported USD6.1b valuation; Alkeon Capital and General Atlantic led private rounds previously.

▸ CRYPTO | El Salvador – the first country to buy Bitcoin with public finance resources – has lost USD70m of its principal due to price changes primarily from the meltdown at FTX. 

• President’s Nayib Bukele revised strategy after last week: “We are buying one Bitcoin everyday starting tomorrow.”

▸ OPEN-SOURCE | Banco Central do Brasil announced it will be open-sourcing PIX, its instant payments system. 

• PIX has seen massive adoption with 70%+ of all adults already using the technology within the first year of launch.

▸ PROPTECH | Mercado Libre partnered with Argentine proptech Simplestate to offer fractional ownership in residential real estate through its marketplace.

▸ Cainiao, Alibaba’s international trade and logistics platform, launched its first distribution center in Brazil as e-commerce growth in China slows down.

People & Programs

▸ LAVCA WEEK 2023 |Save the date for LAVCA Week 2023 taking place October 10-13, 2023 at the Conrad New York Downtown in New York City.

The 2023 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.

• October 10: Member and LP Reception
• October 11-12: Main Conference
• October 13: Breakout Discussions

Participation is open to LAVCA members, non-member private capital investors and qualified institutional investors. Stay tuned for additional announcements.

▸ Congratulations to the companies selected to participate in the new batch of Platanus Venture’s accelerator program: Bree, Brolly, Bircle, Crema, Emissary, Fudata, Lokal, Saludtech, Vivvidero and Wannabe.

▸ Randon Ventures partnered with Gerdau Next Ventures to launch an accelerator for early-stage logistics and supply chain startups.

• Automni, Diesel Bank and Fowls are the first three companies to participate.

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.