TLDR

📣 Meeting Updates | LAVCA Week 2022 is two weeks away

📣 LAVCA Members | LAVCA welcomes new members Alaya Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Kalonia, Promotora Social México and Shift Capital

📣 Fund Closings | Alaya Capital reaches USD25m first close

📣 Debt Rounds | Kavak, Nelo, RappiPay, Prestamype and Wolet

📣 Social Commerce Rounds | Muni, Prepi and Apperto

LAVCA WEEK 2022 | LAVCA Week is only two weeks away, taking place October 11-14 at the Conrad New York Downtown in New York City. 

LAVCA Members, non-member private capital investors and qualified institutional investors are welcome to attend. 

Program Highlights

• Keynote Speaker Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners
   
• Fireside Chat with Nico Szekasy of KASZEK, Nigel Morris of QED Investors and Nick Huber of Ribbit Capital
   
• Fireside Chat with Hans Tung of GGV and Eric Acher of monashees
   
• Fireside Chat with Martin Escobari, Co-President, Managing Director, and Head of General Atlantic Latin America and Cesar Carvalho, CEO of Gympass

For CEOs LAVCA launched its 2022 Latin America Startup Sentiment Survey to establish region-wide benchmarks across operating growth, valuation and early employee compensation for startups that have raised capital since January 2021. CEOs who complete the survey with substantive responses will be invited to attend LAVCA’s Venture Investors Program during LAVCA Week on October 13-14 with a 20% discount off the Qualified Entrepreneur rate.  Contact Carlos Ramos de la Vega (cramos@lavca.org) after submitting to complete registration.

Deals

▸ DEBT | Mexican car resale marketplace Kavak secured USD675m in debt financing from HSBC and another USD135m in credit lines from Goldman Sachs and Santander. 

• Kavak raised a USD700m Series E led by General Catalyst in September 2021 at a USD8.7b valuation and a USD485m Series D in April 2021 at a USD4b valuation.

▸ DEBT | RappiPay, the payments platform launched by Rappi and Colombian bank Banco Davivienda, secured a USD112m syndicated credit line from Bancolombia, Banco de Bogotá, Davivienda and Itaú.
 

▸ DEBT | Victory Park Capital granted a USD100m senior loan facility to Nelo, a Mexican BNPL platform for e-commerce merchants.

• NY-based VC Two Sigma Ventures led a USD20m round in October 2021; Homebrew led a USD3m seed round in April 2021.
• Nelo was founded by former Uber alums Kyle Miller and Stephen Hebson. 

▸ CLEANTECH | Fifth Wall led a USD30m Series C+ for Solfácil, a Brazilian solar energy financing platform.

• QED Investors led a USD100m Series C in May 2022 and a USD30m Series B in 2021.

▸ BoostLAB, the innovation arm of BTG Pactual, led a ~USD27m round for Ali, a Brazilian payroll-backed lending platform. 

▸ WOMEN LED | Muni, a Colombian social commerce platform with operations in Mexico and Brazil, raised USD20m from undisclosed investors. 

• Lightspeed led a USD20m Series A in April.
• Muni was founded by former Rappi Global Grocery Delivery Head Maria Echeverri.

▸ Bridge One invested USD19.3m in Bravium, a Brazilian e-commerce and delivery platform.

• M&A | Bravium acquired Satelital, a Brazilian customer loyalty program, and Atrus, a Brazilian e-commerce solution provider as part of the transaction. 

▸ Moore Capital led a ~USD8m Series A+ for BHub, a Brazilian accounting and financial management platform for SMEs, with participation from Endeavor Scale-Up Ventures, and follow-on from monashees Valor Capital Group, Clocktower Ventures, Picus Capital and QED Investors. 

• monashees and Valor Capital Group led a USD20m Series A in January and a ~USD4.6m pre-seed round in October 2021.

▸ Astella Investimentos led a ~USD7.6m Series A for Amicci, a Brazilian private level developer for retailers focused on consumer products, with participation from DGF Investimentos, and Endeavor Scale-Up Ventures.

▸ WOMEN LED | monashees and CRV led a USD6.7m pre-seed round for Latú, a Brazil-based business insurance platform focused on cyberattacks, lawsuits and property damage, with participation from ONEVC, Latitud and SVAngels. 

• Latu was founded by Colombian Paola Neira. 
• Neira on launching in Brazil and the biggest opportunity within business insurance: “Brazil is not only the largest market in the region but also has three key advantages: Regulators promotes innovation and have opened several initiatives that allow for new insurance products while reducing entry barriers; Ease in setting up collection and payment operations given the access to PIX; and higher adoption towards digital solutions that allow for faster distribution. Cyber is without a doubt one of the biggest risks in today’s world – there is one cybersecurity attack every 39 seconds. Brazil is one of the five countries with the most attacks worldwide, and the cyber insurance market is more than doubling year on year.”
   

▸ Gradient Ventures led a USD6m seed round for Heru, a Mexico-based automated tax filing platform for freelancers, with participation from GFC, Soma Capital, Moving Capital, and angel Mike Shoemaker (Rooftsock), and follow-on from Flourish Ventures and Magma Partners. 

• Mountain Nazca led a USD1.7m round in 2020. 

▸ KASZEK led a USD5m round for DollarApp, a Mexico-based currency exchange and savings platform enabling Latin American customers to dollar-denominated stablecoins, with participation from YC. 

▸ VENEZUELA | Ubii, a Venezuelan payment platform and debit card issuer, raised a USD4.5m round from undisclosed investors. 

▸ DEBT | Prestamype, a Peruvian working capital financing platform for SMEs, secured USD2m in venture debt from IDB Lab. 

• INCA Ventures and Angel Ventures Peru invested in September 2021. 
• Founder & COO Laure Schlesinger: “The three main goals of this round are to exponentially scale our Balance Sheet Lending model, accelerate our evolution to a software embedded financing solution, and prepare our internationalization. With the pre-Series A, we will prepare our launch in Colombia in Q4 2023 with the pre-Series A, and plan to enter Mexico in Q3 2024.”

▸ EDTECH | GSV Ventures and Salkantay Ventures led a USD2m seed round for uDocz, a Peruvian collaborative education platform for university students, with participation from Latitud.

▸ DEBT | Peruvian asset manager Acorde led a USD2m venture debt round for Wolet, a Peruvian credit financing and payments platform for SMEs.

▸ HEALTHTECH |Caravela Capital led a ~USD1.8m seed round for Vidia, a Brazilian surgery coordination platform for uninsured patients looking to get care in private hospitals.

▸ Bertha Capital led a ~USD1.8m round for Antecipa Facil, a Brazilian auction platform for receivables and trade notes for SMEs, with participation from Scalexopen and Activy.

▸ Chromo Invest led a ~USD1.7m round for Civi, a Brazilian hyperlocal security news platform, with participation from Canary, and angels David Velez (Nubank) and Guilherme Bonifácio (iFood).

▸ Canary led a USD1.1m pre-seed round for Bendo, a Mexican inventory and sales management platform for small merchants, with participation from Seedstars and Angel Hub. 

• Bendo was selected to participate in 500 Global’s Mexico Somos Lucha Batch 14 in 2021.

▸ CVC | Globant Ventures invested ~USD1m in Bunker DB, an Uruguay-based communications and marketing automation platform for SMEs. 

▸ AGTECH | BossaNova Investimentos and E3 Negocios led a ~USD1m bridge round for Bart Digital, a Brazilian agribusiness financing and supply chain management platform.

• SP Ventures invested ~USD2.2m in 2017.

▸ KOR Solutions, a Brazilian legal conflict resolution platform, raised ~USD900k from GVAangels, Urca Angels, Gávea Angels and Anjos do Brasil.

▸ Bertha Capital led a ~USD696k round for Simple&Co., a Brazilian digital native restaurant brand developer. 

▸ AGTECH | The Yield Lab and Poligono Capital led a USD325k round for Sioma, a Colombian workflow and operations management platform for banana and palm oil producers.

• 500 Global invested in November 2021. 

▸ Brazilian seed investor BRQ Digital invested ~USD260k in Easy Carros, a Brazilian operations management platform for car rental companies. 

• Easy Carros acquired Brazilian traffic ticket management platform XMultas for ~USD2m in 2018. 

▸ Brazilian investor Elifepar invested ~USD230k in Prepi, a Brazilian social commerce management platform for small and medium-sized retailers.

▸ Proeza Ventures invested in Solvento, Mexican debt financing platform for trucking companies.

• Solvento raised a USD4.5m equity round led by Dynamo Ventures and a USD3m debt facility from Marco Financial in January. 

▸ IMPACT | The SEAF Colombia Agribusiness Fund (SCAF), USAID and DFC invested in Puntored, a Colombian digital payments platform.

• Adobe Capital invested in March 2020. 

▸ BLOCKCHAIN | Ventu, a Colombian blockchain-enabled international trade platform for SMEs, raised an undisclosed seed round from Nido Ventures, 99 Startups and Bridge LatAm. 

▸ Redwood Ventures invested in Apperto, a Mexican social commerce platform offering household goods for rural customers.

• Newtopia VC invested in 2021.

▸ ANGEL | BR Angels invested ~USD300k in Up Estate, a Brazilian residential real estate rental management platform.

Funds 

▸ Alaya Capital reached a USD25m first close for Alaya Capital III, its third fund with a USD80m target to invest in early-stage startups in Spanish-speaking Latin America. 

• Alaya Capital III’s LPs include Grupo Supervielle, Grupo Murchison, Grupo Kawen and Roberto Souviron (Despegar.com).
• Alaya Capital’s portfolio includes Betterfly, Lemon Cash, Six Clovers and Megabite.

▸ DOMO Invest spun off EXT Capital, a new growth fund to invest primarily in DOMO Invest’s early-stage portfolio, and launched a fifth fund with a ~USD30-40m target to continue investing in Brazil-based enterprise software startups.

• Former DOMO Invest Managing Partner Gabriel Sidi will head EXT Capital.

▸ CVC | Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem launched Oxygea CVC, a USD150m corporate innovation hub.

• Two-thirds of the capital will be invested in early-stage Brazilian startups; the rest will be leveraged to incubate in-house ventures.

▸ IMPACT | Adobe Capital and Deetken Impact launched Deetken Impact Alternative Finance Fund IV, an impact fund with a USD100m target to invest through debt instruments and subordinated loans in growth stage companies with a commitment to gender equality in Spanish-speaking Latin America and the Caribbean.

Startups

▸ CRYPTO | Mexican crypto exchange Bitso launched the first QR code-based payment system in Argentina.

• Bitso also launched operations in Colombia and facilitated the first crypto-based payment for a Latin America soccer player in February.

▸ PROPTECH | Indian budget hotel platform Oyo is reportedly now valued at USD2.7b, down from USD10b, according to SoftBank. 

• SoftBank invested USD75m in Oyo through its Latin America fund in September 2020 to launch Oyo latAm, a joint venture to operate hotels in Brazil and Mexico, which was later wound down in February 2021 during the C19 crisis. 

▸ Mono, a Colombian digital debit card issuer, launched Mono VC, a platform to connect fundraising startups with institutional and angel investors. 

• Mono VC includes ALLVP, QED Investors and Magma Partners.
• Tiger Global led a USD6m seed round for Mono in June. 

▸ LOGISTICS | SimpliRoute, a Chilean logistics intelligence platform, launched operations in Miami. 

• TheVentureCity led a USD3m Series A in April 2020. 

▸ AGTECH | Agree, an Argentine agriculture supply chain management platform, will launch operations in Mexico next month. 

• Sancor Seguros Ventures invested USD2m in April 2021.

New Members

LAVCA welcomes new members Alaya Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Kalonia, Promotora Social México and Shift Capital. 

Alaya Capital is a 10-years old VC firm that invests in high-potential startups from Spanish-speaking Latin America. Alaya does early-stage investments with a Latin American regional scaling thesis.

• Investment Focus | Seed & Series A
• Preferred Geos |  Spanish-speaking Latin America, with a focus on Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru
• Year Founded | 2012
• Current Portfolio Includes | Betterfly, Lemon Cash, Houm and Moova
• Key Contacts | Luis Bermejo (Managing Partner), Claudio Barahona (Managing Partner), Lorena Suarez (Managing Partner) and Juan Manuel Giner (Managing Partner) 

Clocktower Technology Ventures (CTV) is a purpose-built financial innovation venture capital platform based in Los Angeles, investing across the United States, Latin America and Europe.

• Investment Focus | Earliest seeds of startup life through growth stage, with a focus on early-stage (Seed and Series A) fintech companies 
• Preferred Geos | Latin America
• Year Founded | 2015 (Launched Latin America fintech platform in early 2021)
• Current Portfolio Includes | Kushki, Flink, Habi, Jeeves, Nuvocargo and Pomelo
• Key Contacts | Benjamin Savage (Partner) and Adriana Saman (Principal)

Kalonia is a Spanish VC firm that invests in early-stage B2B fintechs and as an LP in Latin America. Kalonia’s partners total 20+ years of B2B software, financial services technology, and sales experience who help bridge fintech ventures from Europe to Latin America.

• Investment Focus | First check ranging from USD100-300k (covering two investment rounds), early-stage with an exclusive focus on B2B fintech startups in Latin America.
• Preferred Geos | Latin America-born or Spanish-born with immediate focus on the Latin America region.
• Year Founded | 2018
• Current Portfolio Includes: Flink, Belvo, Koibanx, Prometeo and Dapp
• Key Contacts | Oriol Ros (Partner)

• Investment Focus | Scalable and profitable companies who offer high quality products and services that aim to improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable populations in Mexico and Latin America.
• Industry Focus | healthcare, education, clean technologies, mobility, fair trade, amongst others that generate positive social impact and social mobility.
• Preferred Geos | Mexico or Latin America, as long as the companies are looking to expand into Mexico in the short term.
• Year Founded | 2009
• Current Portfolio Includes | Clínicas del Azúcar, Médica Santa Carmen, Someone Somewhere, Iluméxico, Laudex
• Key Contacts | Octaviano Couttolenc (Investment Director), Valerie Aizpuru (Investment Officer) and Sergio García (Investment Associate)

Shift Capital is a five-year fundamentalist-oriented growth equity firm focused on tech-enabled companies in Latin America's real economy. By concentrating capital – 10-12 companies per fund – in Series A's and B's, Shift analyzes its opportunities in more depth, making 3 investments per year with a 0.2% investment ratio, and offers hands-on support to its investees, enjoying higher success rates in the early-stage and risk-adjusted returns. Shift Capital’s results support the narrative: over 3x markup on a 2-year portfolio, on average.

• Investment Focus | Growth (Series A’s, B’s, and Private Equity), with check size from USD2-15m 
• Preferred Geos | Brazil
• Year Founded | 2017
• Current Portfolio Includes | TerraMagna, Kovi, Skelt Beauty Brands, Paketá and The Coffee
• Key Contacts | Fernando Jamra (Co-Founder and Managing Partner) and Felipe Tokarski (Investment Associate and Head of Investor Relations)

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

News

▸ Nubank is canceling its registration with Brazil’s Commissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM) and will no longer operate as a locally-listed company.

• Nubank will continue to trade as a foreign company listed in the B3 after the restructuring. 
• David Vélez just announced Nubank reached the 70m customer mark in Latin America: “O Nubank é um projeto para as próximas décadas.”

▸ SPACETECH | Argentine spacetech Satellogic will be the exclusive monitoring system of all subnational protected areas worldwide, announced at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in a month.

• Satellogic will collect satellite imagery over the Earth’s forests until 2025, after which biomass loss information will be available to the broad public.
• Satellogic raised USD150m from Liberty Strategic Capital in January after merging with CF Acquisition Corp V, a SPAC formed by Cantor Fitzgerald, to go public at a USD850m valuation.

▸ Amazon will now take cash for payment in Mexico. 

• Customers will be able to deposit the full purchase price in cash at any of the 25k+ establishments from 7-Eleven, Circle K, Extra, and others.

▸ Value, a last-mile delivery app launched in March by the Rio de Janeiro local government, is being called to question by some local officials claiming unfair competition in private markets.

In a self-proclaimed attempt to bust the monopoly of privately owned last-mile delivery apps, Rio de Janeiro’s government created its own app to compete in the market rather than attempt regulating private apps. Critics of the initiative claimed that the app, with its lower fees and fixed-rate pay for delivery workers, created unfair competition with privately owned apps.

▸ The Brazilian Central Bank ruled on the maximum exchange fees that Brazil-based fintechs can charge for prepaid cards, which can reportedly impact 60-70% of their revenue.

• Traditional financial institutions had been operating under a capped fee threshold since 2018.

▸ DEBT | Bloomberg reviews the uptick in credit financing by global financial institutions in the region in: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup Boost Lending to Latin America Startups.

Investors

▸ Nigel Morris of QED Investors hosted a discussion with Deepak Chhugani of Nuvocargo, David Poritz of Covalto and Igor Senra of Coru on the state of fintech-enabled businesses in Latin America. 

• Nigel Morris will speak at LAVCA Week alongside Nico Szekasy of KASZEK and Nick Huber of Ribbit Capital. See the full agenda.

▸ Mate Pencz and Julio Vasconcellos of Canary and Atlantico share their view on technology penetration in Latin America and the success of Brazilian PIX as a seamless payments system for emerging markets, in conversation with Patrick O'Shaughnessy of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management.

▸ AMEXCAP and ARCAP led the Spanish translation of the Institutional Partners Association’s (ILPA) Principles.

• The Principles outline best practices regarding fund structuring, governance and financial reporting.

▸ TheVentureCity launched GrowthScanner, a free unit economics benchmarking tool for tech-enabled businesses. 

• TheVentureCity latest investments include Belo, Ola Build Games, SimpliRoute, Finbits, Alba and Festalabs.

People & Programs

▸ Congratulations to the women selected to Financier’s Top 30 Mujeres en Finanzas en Mexico including Anna Raptis of Amplifica Capital, Karla Berman of SoftBank, Laura Diez Barroso Azcarraga of Banco Santander, Maria Ariza of BIVA, Samantha Ricciardi of Santander Asset Management and Liliana Reyes of AMEXCAP.

▸ Congratulations to the investors and founders selected to Bloomberg’s 500 Most Influential People in Latin America in 2022: Jaime Zunzunegui (NAZCA), Marcelo Claure (Claure Capital), David Arana (Konfio), Marlene Garayzar (Stori), Mariana Dias (Gupy), Ricardo Amper (Incode), Brynne McNulty (Habi), Eduardo della Maggiora (Betterfly), Marcos Galperin (Mercado Libre), Martin Migoya (Globant) and Sergio Fogel (dLocal).

▸ Congratulations to Mariana Castillo of Ben&Frank and Karla Berman of SoftBank for being appointed to Endeavor Mexico’s board of directors.

▸ NFX launched a free course on network effects for tech-enabled companies. 

• NFX Latin America portfolio includes Clubbi, UME, FLOKI, Zubale, Melonn, Nuvocargo and La Haus.

▸ Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican manufacturer and distributor of baked goods, launched  Bimbo Open Door, an accelerator program focused on tech-enabled bakery and snack manufacturers.

Global Tech

▸ SIGN UP for the 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.

LAVCA is now part of GPCA, Global Private Capital Association, and will continue to operate as a parallel membership organization with its own dedicated team and board.