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DEALS

> ðŸ¦„ Andreessen Horowitz and Vulcan Capital led a US$175m Series C in Brazilian proptech Loft, with participation from Jaguar Ventures, and follow-on from monashees, Valor Capital, Fifth Wall Ventures, QED Investors, and Thrive Capital, at a reported valuation of US$1b. This is the first known investment of Vulcan, the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, in Latin America. Jaguar is Loft’s first investor that is not US- or Brazil-based.

• Loft’s last disclosed round was a US$70m Series B led by Fifth Wall Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from QED Investors, Valor, Canary, and others at a reported ~US$370m valuation. Loft raised a US$18m Series A in 2018.
• Last month, Loft announced a R$216m Fundo de Investimento Imobiliário (FII) fund to finance the purchase of ~1,200 properties over the next two years.
• READ LAVCA's interview with Co-CEO Mate Pencz.

🦄📝 Unicorn Leaderboard update: View LAVCA’s Unicorn Leaderboard for an updated list of known LatAm tech unicorns.

> #DEBT Colombian fintech Finsocial raised US$125m in debt financing from Morgan Stanley to expand its lending capacity.

> #CVC Tencent and Fondo Pitanga made a follow-on US$50m investment in Argentine spacetech Satellogic, with participation from IDB Lab. Tencent and Pitanga led a US$27m Series B in 2017.

• Previous investors include monashees, Valor Capital, NXTP Labs, Cygnus, CrunchFund, Starlight Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, and others.
• In 2019, Satellogic announced expansion to Europe and partnered with China Great Wall Industry Corp to launch micro-satellites aboard Chinese space rockets.

> #AGTECH SP Ventures led a US$23m Series B in Agrofy, an Argentine marketplace for agricultural supplies, with participation from Fall Line Capital, ACRE Capital, and #CVC Brasil Agro, and follow-on from Cygnus Capital. Syngenta Ventures, Bunge Ventures, Cygnus Capital, NXTP Labs, #CVC Cresud, and Endeavor Catalyst invested previously.

• This is the largest known agtech round in the region to date, according to LAVCA Industry Data. Capital will be used to expand in Brazil and Mexico, and on product development.
• Agrofy co-founder and President Alejandro Larosa shares: "Agrofy has a presence in 9 countries in LatAm, with 40% of the business located in Brazil, giving us access to thousands of farmers, with over 200k products listed in 17 categories and more than 10k merchants with their own digital store in the platform.”

> 777 Partners led a US$10m Series A in Fanatiz, a Miami-based sports streaming platform founded in Chile, and with presence in major LatAm markets. Magma Partners invested in 2018.

> Mexican fintech Resuelve Tu Deuda raised MX$93m (~US$5m) from DILA Capital and an additional MX$360m in debt financing from Alloy Merchant Finance. Resuelve Tu Deuda has been operating for over a decade in Mexico and has presence in Colombia, Argentina, and Spain.

> #CVC banco BV (formerly Banco Vorantim) led a R$25m investment in Olivia, a California-based personal finance app, to fund expansion into Brazil. BR Startups, managed by MSW Capital, followed on in the round. XP Investimentos also made an undisclosed investment in Olivia in 2019. Olivia was founded by Brazilians Cristiano Oliveira and Lucas Moraes.

• banco BV is planning to IPO in 2020.

>  Astella Investimentos led a R$20m investment in Kenoby, a Brazilian SaaS platform for employee recruitment.

>  ABseed and Order invested R$10m in Leads2b, a Brazilian client prospecting SaaS platform. Grupo Bonin invested previously. 

> #BIOTECH Uruguay-based biotech Eolo Pharma raised a US$2.7m Series A from CITES and a group of international investors to fund preclinical trials for an obesity treatment. Eolo Pharma emerged in 2017 from a collaboration of scientists at Institut Pasteur de Montevideo and la Universidad de la República, Uruguay, and is run by biotech engineer Pia Garat.

> #PE Real estate credit marketplace Melhortaxa raised ~R$4.5m from the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs at a reported valuation of R$100m. This is Goldman’s third investment in Melhortaxa through Holding Finizy, which controls Meilleurtaux.com in France.

> Cedro Capital led a R$4.5m investment in Brazilian fintech Nucont, with participation from FC Capital and others.

> DILA Capital led an undisclosed investment in Someone Somewhere, a marketplace for Mexican artisanal goods, with participation from PSM, GBM Ventures, Soldiers Field Angels, Unreasonable Capila, and Kalei Ventures.

> #IMPACT FIS (Fondo de Inversión Social) and unnamed Chilean family offices made an undisclosed investment in Doble Impacto, a Chilean crowdlending platform, in December 2019.

> DUX Capital led a follow-on investment in Atexto, a Mexican developer of chatbot technology for customer service applications, with participation from Redwood Ventures, Avalancha Ventures MC Capital, and others.

> DUX Capital made a R$50k seed investment in Qwip, a Mexican mobile mapping app for public transportation.

> Lightcone Investments, Genesis Capital Ventures, and KFVC participated in an undisclosed bridge round in EmpleosTI, a Mexico-based tech jobs platform.

> Redwood Ventures led an undisclosed seed investment in Genius Foods, a Mexican foodtech focused on extending the shelf life of food products.

> #PE #CVC PE firm Kinea and Grupo A, a provider of educational materials, acquired a 51% stake in Saber em Rede, an edtech marketplace that connects students with grad school vacancies via independent agents.

• Valor reports that a decline in graduate student matriculation in private schools in Brazil has fueled the rise of independent agents responsible for filling empty spots for a commission on the student’s first semester of school.

> #CVC Mindsight, a Brazilian data analytics platform for the human resources industry, raised an undisclosed investment from Brazilian software company Senior.

> #CVC Latinia’s direct investments in 2019 include Prometeo, Facturedo,
Flink, Prestanomico, Dapp, Belvo, UALET, and Tu Identidad.

EXITS

> Teravoz, a Brazilian VoIP services provider to small businesses and call centers, was acquired by Twilio, providing an exit to investors Canary and Wayra Brasil. Teravoz reports a 30x return for Wayra.

> #IMPACT Credicorp acquired Banco Compartir, a Colombian microfinance institution, providing an exit to Accion.

FUNDS

> #CVC Qualcomm Ventures and BNDES launched a R$160m fund to invest in IoT projects in Brazil. Qualcomm and BNDES will contribute R$80m.

> #CVC Grupo Proeza launched Proeza Ventures, a US$50m CVC focused on mobility investments. Rodolfo Dieck will serve as Managing Director.

> A5 Capital Partners and Inseed Investimentos merged to form a new venture firm called KPTL. Renato Ramalho of A5 will serve as CEO of KPTL.

> Pierre Schurmann of Bossa Nova Investimentos will begin investing R$100m in SaaS startups through a new vehicle called Keiretsu Software.

> New Chilean VC firm WeBoost launched a US$20m fund to invest in Chilean startups.

> #IMPACT Brazilian VC Positive Ventures raised US$4.8m towards a US$12m target. Investments from the new fund include Labi and Letrus.

> #IMPACT Fundación Chile plans to launch a US$50m social impact fund in 2020.

STARTUPS

> M&A banco BV (formerly Banco Vorantim) acquired GuiaBolso’s consumer lending portfolio, Just.

> #M&A Nubank acquired Plataformatec, a software development platform, in its first known acquisition.

> #M&A Brazilian edtech Quero Educação acquired the Brazilian operations of QuinStreet, a Nasdaq-listed American performance marketing firm.

> #M&A Uruguayan digital freight platform Gurucargo appears to be in the process of an acquisition.

> iFood VP of Growth, Bruno Henriques, for VentureBeat: Brazil is emerging as a world-class AI innovation hub.

• iFood recently expanded coverage for delivery workers.

> Rappi, along with a number of global SoftBank portfolio companies, is trimming its workforce. There is also a trade secrets lawsuit to contend with.

> Micromobility startup Grow, which has scaled through an aggressive string of mergers, may be experiencing growing pains.

> Entrepreneur.com covers the expansion of Mexican residential real estate platform Homie after raising ~US$7m from an unnamed affiliate of Equity International, with follow-on from Angel Ventures Mexico and others.

> Uruguay-based payments startup dLocal announced expansion to South Africa and Nigeria.

> Exame covers edtech Qranio’s pivot to large corporate clients.

> Congrats to Jaguar Ventures portfolio companies Nexu, MyMoons, and Checkars for joining the latest YC batch.

> Chilean construction management platform Ipsum made CEMEX Ventures and BGC’s list of 50 most promising construction tech startups.

> #AFRICA How does a Nigerian fintech based in California expand into Brazil? TechCabal profiles Migo, a fintech platform offering credit to underbanked clients in emerging markets, which recently raised a US$20m Series B led by Valor Capital.

> Check out LAVCA’s directory of 331 Latin American startups with at least US$1m in VC funding, verified by LAVCA (as of end-2018), our Unicorn Leaderboard, and our Inaugural Survey of Latin American Startups.

> VC investment in Latin American startups has quadrupled since 2016 to a record US$2b in 2018, according to LAVCA data. Access LAVCA’s Annual Review of Tech Investment in Latin America for the details.

NEWS

> ðŸŒ¡ï¸ #WOW #CLIMATE Microsoft is launching a US$1b fund for carbon reduction tech, and pledged to be carbon negative by 2030.

• Axios Login says the pledge “would apply not only to its direct operations and energy supplies, but also to the far larger carbon output from use of its products in the economy. In addition, Microsoft said that by 2050 it will "remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975."

> 95% of new Netflix subscribers in Q42019 were from international markets. Netflix added ~2m paid subscribers in Latin America.

> Bloomberg: Fintech in Brazil Vows to Prove Goldman, Morgan Stanley Wrong.

> Exame: Os planos do Softbank para o Brasil em 2020: apostas menos “óbvias".

> Colombia’s Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC) has ordered Uber to cease operations over a competition rules violation; UberEats is not affected.

> El País Bolivia: América Central tiene más mujeres empresarias que América del Sur.

> ðŸ¦„ Brazil has hit the global map for new unicorns in 2019.

>  Antonia Rojas Eing joins ALLVP as a partner at the Mexican VC firm, and will focus on SaaS deals in Mexico, Chile, and Colombia. She is the youngest known female partner at a Latin America-based VC, according to TechCrunch, and was formerly a partner at Manutara Ventures. Access LAVCA's list of Top Women Investors in Latin America. Antonia shares:

"As the region's tech and VC reach new highs, I'm thrilled to join Fernando and Federico in their mission to back outstanding founders seeking to change the daily lives of Latin Americans. There are countless problems to solve and many talented entrepreneurs working hard in Chile, Mexico, Colombia, and beyond. The ALLVP platform is ready to help them reach their potential."

> Mercado Libre Fund (MELI Fund) is hosting MELI Pitch in CDMX to connect startups with potential investors. Startups in logistics, ecommerce, and payments, with funding between Seed and Series A, are encouraged to apply by Feb 3.

> #AGTECH The Yield Lab is accepting applications for its 2020 accelerator program, which was recently featured in La Nacion. Agtechs can apply by Feb 14.

> #FINTECH The IDB and Finnovista are asking fintechs to participate in their third annual survey on the state of fintech in Latin America. Participate by Feb 21.

> Endeavor is now supporting over 2,000 entrepreneurs globally. Learn more.

> Mexico City will host MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 on Jan 30.

> Foro Latinoamericano de Inversión de Impacto X, hosted by FLII, will be held in Merida, México, February 18-20th. Tickets here.

> Smart Capital Summit 2020 will take place in Medellín on February 27 and 28. More information here.

> â™€ï¸ Investors from MAYA Capital, Innova Capital, Positive Ventures, Wayra Brasil, Google, and others are offering free mentoring for female entrepreneurs through Female Force LATAM. XX entrepreneurs, sign up here for free mentoring and spread the word. #CHANGETHERATIO

INVESTOR POV

> Forbes.com interviews Movile chief Fabricio Bloisi: “A global technology bubble would not affect the country at all. We still need to create hundreds of Brazilian tech companies worth several billion dollars.”

The LatAm Venture Bulletin is the VC/tech newsletter and content platform of
The Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America.

Have news we should include? Please email news@lavca.org.