TLDR

📣 2022 LAVCA Women Investors in LatAm Tech

📣 Call for Nominations | 2023 LAVCA ESG Awards

📣 New Rounds for: Docket, BR Média, Produce, Seedz, Destacame, Klavi and Smart Break

📣 Debt Rounds for: Baubap,Turbi and Wynwood House

📣 Investors | Patria Investimentos acquires Igah Ventures

LAVCA has released its annual lists of the Top Women Investing in Latin American Tech and Emerging Women Investors in Latin American Tech.

• TOP WOMEN INVESTORS LAVCA identified 20 new partner-level women investing in Latin American VC/Tech in 2022, representing a 23% increase over 2021. View the full list.
   
• EMERGING WOMEN INVESTORS LAVCA also published a companion list identifying 52 new junior investment professionals, a 16% increase over last year. View the full list.

GROWTH LAVCA continued tracking the movement of women investment professionals from junior to senior roles. Congratulations to the seven women featured in last year’s Emerging Women Investors list who now hold a Partner-level role and are showcased in our 2022 Top Women list:

• Evelyn Arriaga Velasco, G2 Momentum Capital
• Vanessa Bello, Wayra Hispam
• Gabriela Cibils-Bernardes, Cibersons
• Macarena Liu, Driven VC
• Viviane Hengstmann Radiuk, Invest Tech
• Bianca Sassoon, 17Sigma
• Regina Zurutuza Guízar, 500 Global

Thank you for an all-time record of nominations and participation and to WeInvest LatAm for their continued support.

Deals

▸ CROSSBORDER | Octopus Ventures and Notion Capital led a USD41m Series B for Cobee, a Spanish employee benefits platform and card issuer expanding to Latin America, with follow-on from DILA Capital, Balderton Capital and Speedinvest.

▸ DEBT | Baubap, a Mexican consumer lending platform, secured USD25m in debt financing from Park Cities Asset Management. 

• Grupo Alfin led a USD3m round in Baubap in March 2021. 

▸ Gerdau Next Ventures and Inovabra, the CVC arm of Bradesco, led a ~USD22m Series B for Docket, a Brazilian legal document analysis platform, with participation from TM3 Capital, and follow-on from Valor Capital Group, ONEVC and Wayra.

• Docket raised ~USD7m over two tranches in February 2020, with participation from KASZEK and Canary.

▸ DEBT | Turbi, a Brazilian car rental platform, secured a ~USD21m loan facility from ARC Capital, Jive Investments, Augme, Capitânia, EXT, Fator and Western.

• DOMO Invest led a ~USD800k round in October 2018.

▸ Bridge One invested ~USD21m in BR Media, a Brazilian social media agency connecting influencers with corporates.

▸ AGTECH | Produce, a Brazilian wholesale marketplace for agricultural products, raised ~USD20m from undisclosed investors. 

▸ AGTECH | Alexia Ventures led a USD16.5m round for Seedz, Brazilian loyalty platform for rural producers, with participation from VOX Capital and Endeavor Scale-Up, and follow-on from Parceiro Ventures. 

• This is VOX Capital’s first known investment in an agtech startup. 
• Seedz acquired Atomic Agro, a Brazilian productivity management platform for small-scale agricultural producers, in January. 
• Volpe Capital and 10b led an undisclosed seed round in October 2021.

▸ Banco Santander led a USD10m Series B for Destacame, a Chilean consumer credit platform, with follow-on from Kayyak Ventures, FEN Ventures, and undisclosed FOs.

• FEN Ventures led a USD3m Series A in March 2019. 

▸ CVC | Banco BV and RX Ventures, the CVC arm of Lojas Renner, led an undisclosed Series A+ for Klavi, a Brazilian open banking platform.

• Iporanga Ventures and Parallax Ventures led a USD15m Series A in August; Iporanga led a ~USD1.3m seed round in September 2021.

▸ Headline led a ~USD7.2m round for Smart Break, a Brazilian startup installing pop-up grocery stores in residential condominiums and companies, with participation from UVC Investimentos, and follow-on from Anjos do Brasil and Columbia Alumni Angels. 

• Smart Break raised ~USD1.1m in November 2021.

▸ PROPTECH | FEN Ventures and Innogen Capital led a USD7m equity and debt round for Wynwood House, a Peruvian short-term rentals platform.

▸ PROPTECH | Legria, a vacation rental co-ownership platform, raised USD6m from Chile Ventures, Genesis Ventures and others.

▸ Genesis Ventures, Amarena and Grupo Penta invested USD6m in Kredito, a Chilean working capital financing platform for SMEs. 

• Kredit raised a USD4m pre-seed round from Link Capital Partners in June 2021 and an undisclosed round in 2019. 

▸ HEALTHTECH | ISA LAB, a Brazilian at-home vaccination service, raised a ~USD6m round extension from undisclosed investors. 

• ISA LAB raised a ~USD12m round with participation from Yaya Capital, FIR Capital, Vox Capital, Kortex, Bradesco Saude and Scale-Up Ventures, with follow-on from Canary, Norte Ventures and MatterScale in August 2022. 

▸ Brazilian fintech Jazz Tech will invest up to ~USD5m in Sanus, a Brazilian financial and wellness employee benefits platform.

▸ FOODTECH | Morro Ventures led a USD3.5m round for Toteat, a Chilean restaurant management platform.

▸ Addem Capital invested ~USD3m in Atria, a Mexican used car financing platform.

▸ trii, a Colombian brokerage platform enabling retail investors to invest in public markets in Colombia, Peru and Chile, raised USD3m from Global Founders Capital, Bancolombia Ventures and YC. 

▸ Magma Partners led a USD2.3m round for Flourish Fi, a Brazil- and US-based loyalty and rewards platform for financial institutions, with participation from Canary, Lightspeed, Remarkable Ventures, Seedstars, Kadmotek VC, Amplifica Capital, Potencia Ventures, and angels Samir Goel and Abbey Wemimo (Esusu).

▸ Genesis Ventures and Amarena invested USD2m in Racional, a Chilean personalized ETF investing platform for retail investors. 

• Chilean insurtech Betterfly acquired 20% of Racional in October 2021.

▸ CLEANTECH | BioEsol, a Mexican renewable energy storage developer for SMEs, raised a USD1.5m pre-seed round from Techstars, Katapult VC, Innlite and GVM. 

▸ Reliv, an Ecuadorian ERP for health clinics, raised a USD1.5m seed round from 500 Global, Buentrip Ventures and Best of Stonks. 

• Reliv was selected to participate in 500 Global’s Somos Lucha Batch 15 in April. 

▸ WOMEN-LED | Bertha Capital led a ~USD1.4m round for Cashin, a Brazilian reward and coupon usage monitoring platform, with participation from Thales. 

• Cashin was founded by Nani Gordon and Luciana Ramos. 
• Cashin’s clients include Ambev, Burger King, Coca Cola and Nestlé

▸ EDTECH | BR Angels led a ~USD1.4m round for Scaleup, a Brazilian short-form educational content platform, with participation from angels Diego Barreto (iFood), Igor Mascarenhas (Pier), Helisson Lemos (Via), Jonathan Martins (Serac) and Rafael Bagolin (Jusfy).

▸ Hitter Brands, a Mexican dark kitchen operator, raised USD1.2m from Variv, Angel Ventures, angels Simon Borrero and Sebastian Mejia (Rappi), and Ali Jamal (First Check Ventures). 

▸ GoodMeal, a Chilean startup enabling grocery chains to resell unaesthetic produce at a discount, raised USD1m from angels Cristobal della Maggiora (Betterfly), Ian Lee (Examedi), Eyal Shats (Simpli Route) and others.

▸ EDTECH | Weboost led a USD1m round for Wited, a Chilean complementary education platform for K-12 students.

▸ Salkantay Ventures invested USD800k in Prestamype, a Peruvian working capital financing platform for SMEs. 

• Prestamype secured USD2m in venture debt from IDB Lab in September. 

▸ HRTECH | IDB Lab invested USD750k in Talently, a Peruvian platform connecting freelance software developers with international companies. 

• Talently raised a USD3m seed round in June and a USD600k round in February 2021.

▸ CLEANTECH | Irani Ventures, the CVC arm of Brazilian paper company Irani Papel e Embalagem, invested ~USD300k in Trashin, a Brazilian waste management processing startup. 

▸ WOMEN-LED | Brazilian angel investor network Sorôrite led a ~USD200k pre-seed round for Feel & Lilit, a Brazilian D2C women’s health platform. 

• Feel & Lilit was founded by Marina Ratton. 

▸ HEALTHTECH | Proffer, a Brazilian pricing management platform for pharmacy chains, raised a ~USD200k pre-seed round from Brazilian accelerator Wow and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ).

▸ LAST MILE | BossaNova Investimentos and Koan Ventures invested in Voa Logística, a Brazilian last-mile delivery management platform for SMEs.

▸ ANGEL | GVAngels and Hangar8 invested ~USD800k in 123Projetei, a Brazilian project management platform for architects and civil engineers. 

▸ Chilean accelerator Magical invested USD125k each in Pignus, an employee management platform, Simbiotica, a telemedicine platform for ENTs and Edipro, a condominium management platform.

Funds 

▸ M&A | Brazilian asset manager Patria Investimentos acquired Igah Ventures. Igah Partners Pedro Sirotsky, Camila Sangali and Thiago Maluf will head Patria’s new VC strategy.

• Igah Ventures was founded in 2011 and has USD320m in AUM across three funds. 
• Igah’s portfolio includes Infracommerce, Contabilizei, Unico, Conexa Saúde.

▸ LP | Brazilian social development agency AgeRio (Agência de Fomento do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) made a ~USD1m commitment to WE Ventures, Microsoft’s early-stage fund investing in women-led startups in Brazil.

• WE Ventures portfolio includes Unbox, Venuxx, Smarkets, Mobees, Pontue, PackID.

▸ FoF | Seedstars partnered with Swiss accelerator xMultiplied to launch Seedstars Capital to invest in GPs launching their first institutional fund with a USD15m-50m target in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

▸ Brazilian investor Terracotta Ventures launched Terracotta Ventures III, its third flagship fund with a ~USD60m target to invest in early-stage companies developing solutions for the proptech and construction industries. 

• Terracotta Ventures’ portfolio includes Approva Fácil, imobles, CondoConta, Rede Vistorias and Livance.

▸ Supera Capital launched its first flagship fund to invest in pre-seed and seed-stage startups in Brazil. Former Igah Ventures Managing Partner Luis Felipe Magon will head the new fund. 

• Globo Ventures is an anchor LP in Supera Capital; Individual LPs include Luciano Huck and Gilberto Sayão of Vinci Partners, and Duda Melzer of EB Capital.

▸ CVC | Chilean maritime infrastructure company Agunsa launched Agunsa Labs, a CVC fund to invest in early-stage startups developing solutions for airports and seaports, and invested USD200k in Chilean e-commerce platform Instance Latam.

▸ CVC | Brazilian pesticide company Koppert Brasil launched a USD50m fund to invest in seed-stage agtech startups.

Startups 

▸ HEALTHTECH | Brazilian corporate wellness platform Gympass partnered with Thrive, a US-based wellness platform, to provide mental health and burnout management therapy for corporate employees. 

• Gympass raised a USD220m Series E in July 2021 at a USD2.2b valuation.

▸ Argentine fintech Ualá partnered with Mexican boutique consumer bank ABC Capital to offer personal loans to Mexican cardholders.

▸ Latitud, a company incorporation and cap table management platform for Latin American startups, published a LatAm Tech Report highlighting key sectors of opportunity for potential founders, including B2c Fintech, B2B Fintech, E-commerce, Proptech, Healthech and Climatech. 

▸ WOMEN-LED | Colombian edtech Platzi published Mujeres Fundadoras de Startups, an analysis of women leading tech-enabled businesses in Latin America, including latest startup financings, professional growth, and details on social support systems enabling women’s participation in the tech ecosystem. 

VC-backed founders continued to adapt and respond to the current market environment:

▸ CRYPTO | Mexican crypto exchange Bitso reduced its workforce by ~25%. 

• Bitso raised a USD250m Series C in May 2021 led by Tiger Global and Coatue.

▸ LOGISTICS | Buser, a Brazilian bus ticketing platform, reduced its workforce by ~30%. 

• Lightrock led a ~USD140m Series C in June 2021. 

▸HEALTHTECH | Brazilian healthtech Alice reduced its workforce by ~16%.

• SoftBank led a USD127m round in January. 

▸ CRYPTO | Lemon Cash, an Argentine crypto banking platform, reduced its workforce by 38%. 

• Lemon raised a USD28m Series A+ earlier this year and a USD16m Series A in 2021.
• CEO Marcelo Cavazzoli: “El caso de empresas referentes que tomaron decisiones similares como Meta, Stripe o Coinbase indican que esta es una de las principales formas que tiene la industria tech para afrontar el estado actual del mercado.”

▸ PROPTECH | Brazilian proptech Loft reduced its workforce by 12% in its third restructuring this year.

▸ Muni, a Colombian social commerce platform with operations in Mexico and Brazil, shut down last week.

• Muni raised USD20m from undisclosed investors in September and a USD20m Series A led by Lightspeed in April.

News 

▸ POLICY | The Colombian Central Bank published a new proposal for instant payments and aims to launch its own digital currency.

• Colombia’s Central Bank initiative comes after the overwhelming adoption that instant payments system PIX has seen in Brazil. 

▸ POLICY | The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies passed a regulatory framework legalizing the use of crypto as a payment method.

▸ PERU | Dina Boluarte is Peru’s first female President. 

• Boluarte took office after her predecessor Pedro Castillo was impeached after attempting to dissolve Congress. 
• Boluarte is Peru’s sixth President in under five years.

▸ Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez was sentenced to six years in prison and a lifetime ban from holding public office for the discretionary assignment of USD1b in public infrastructure projects.

• This is the first time a vice president has been convicted of a crime while in office.

▸ CROSSBORDER | Chinese car manufacturers are gaining market share in Mexico, as other carmakers struggle with the current semiconductor shortage. 

• Leannette Bautista of BMW: “Some of the cars don’t have wireless chargers and we have to sell them like that, but customers don’t want to buy them nor do they want to wait three to six months to get the fully equipped versions.”

▸ Derek Thompson of The Atlantic points to interest rates as the main driver of the current state of the tech industry in Why Everything in Tech Seems to Be Collapsing at Once:

“...we are in an intermission between technological epochs. We’ve mostly passed through the browser era, the social media era, and the smartphone-app-economy era. But in the past few months, the explosion of artificial-intelligence programs suggests that something quite spectacular and possibly a little terrifying is on the horizon. Ten years from now, looking back on the 2022 tech recession, we may say that this moment was a paroxysm of scandals and layoffs between two discrete movements.”

Investors

▸ Susana García-Robles of Capria Ventures shares an analysis of the importance of emotional intelligence when appointing a new partner at a VC firm, and the current maturity of the Peruvian tech ecosystem.

García-Robles: “Yo intenté, desde el BID, crear una industria de venture capital en el Perú en el 2003 pero los fondos de pensiones solo quisieron invertir en private equity. De allí salieron fondos que fueron fondeados por ellos y he visto varias veces en Perú, comenzar la industria y luego retraerse, pero eso ya no va a pasar, hay suficiente ecosistema y suficiente fundamento para que sigan creciendo. Hay que tener más fondos locales, e inversores locales, que se animen a invertir en esos fondos e invertir en esos emprendedores.”

▸ Wenyi Cai of Polymath Ventures shares an analysis of the promise of social commerce for the regional middle class using Polymath’s portfolio company Elenas as a case study. 

• Polymath first invested in Elenas in 2018; Elenas raised USD20m led by DILA Capital in June. 
• Cai: “For e-commerce in Latin America, the costs of acquisition are still $30 to $80, which makes it hard to find a balance between the LTV and the CAC. At Elena's we acquire sellers for $15. And then they're selling to their friends and family. On the one hand, we are leveraging the existing behavior, both on the supply and demand side in a way to solve some of the business model challenges that have served this demographic.”

▸ Marta Cruz of NXTP shares her view on investor biases when considering investment opportunities with women decision-makers. 

SAVE THE DATE | LAVCA Week 2023 is taking place October 10-13 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. To learn more, visit lavcaweek.org. 

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.