MARK YOUR CALENDARS

LAVCA Tech Brasil is 21 August 2024 

LAVCA Tech Brasil is an annual meeting of LAVCA's network of Brazil-focused VCs and tech investors in São Paulo. This year's meeting will include keynote fireside chats, breakout sessions and networking opportunities designed to build meaningful relationships amongst investors active in the region.

LAVCA Members are invited to join for dinner following the program.

LAVCA Tech Brasil 2024 is made possible with support from LAVCA’s Tech Growth Members. Special thanks to Google for hosting, along with AWS, Qualcomm Ventures, MercadoLibre, Riverwood Capital and SVB, for their continued partnership.

Stay tuned for registration and additional details in the coming weeks. Contact Marcelo Pizzato mpizzato@lavca.org with questions.

Deals

▸ DEBT | Plata, a Mexico-based financial services startup, secured a USD100m warehouse facility from Fasanara Capital. 

▸ DEBT | JP Morgan provided a USD80m loan to Merama, a Mexico- and Brazil-based e-commerce brand aggregator.

• Advent International and SoftBank led a USD60m Series B+ in December 2021 and a USD225m Series B in October 2021; Valor Capital Group, monashees and Balderton Capital led a USD60m round in May 2021. 

▸ DEBT |Jeeves, a Latin America-based B2B payments and corporate card platform, secured a USD75m credit facility from Community Investment Management. 

▸ US digital infrastructure investor Columbia Capital led a USD40m Series A for Indicium, a Brazilian data solutions startup.

▸ CLEANTECH | Green Energy Park, a Brazil-based hydrogen production plant, raised a USD30m Series A from undisclosed investors. 

▸ General Atlantic led an undisclosed Series B+ for QI Tech, a Brazil-based API-based credit issuance platform.

• General Atlantic led a USD200m Series B round in October 2023; GIC led a USD50m Series A in November 2021.
• QI tech was the first Direct Credit Company (Sociedade de Credito Direto) approved by the Brazilian Central Bank. 

▸ Fintoc, a Chilean API-based payments startup, raised a USD7m Series A from undisclosed investors. 

▸ Valor Capital Group and QED Investors led a ~USD5.8m pre-Series A for Vixtra, a Brazilian working capital financing platform focused on imports for SMEs, with participation from NXTP, Endeavor Scale-Up Ventures and Actyus. 

• Vixtra also raised ~USD29m through a FIDC (Fundo de Investimentos em Direitos Creditorios) from Capitânia, Verde Asset, Credit Saison and Contea Capital. 
• QED Investors invested ~USD3.2m inOctober 2022; Valor Capital Group led a ~USD7m round in 2021.

▸ Qred, a Brazilian online lending platform, raised ~USD5m through a FIDC (Fundo de Investimentos em Direitos Creditorios) structured by Nau Capital. 

▸ Seaya Cathay led a USD4.5m seed round for Reuse, a Mexican refurbished electronics marketplace, with participation from Dalus Capital, IGNIA Partners, Angel Hub, Compusoluciones Ventures and Silence VC.

▸ AGTECH | Smartbreeder, a Brazilian agricultural management platform, raised ~USD3m from EcoEnterprises Fund. 

▸ LOGISTICS | Barn Invest led a USD2m seed round for Ruedata, a Colombia- and Mexico-based enterprise vehicle fleet management platform.

• Kamay Ventures invested December 2022.

▸ HEALTHTECH | Green Rock led a ~USD2m round for Omni, a Brazilian pharmacy voucher management platform.

• Brazilian investor VEC led ~USD1m seed round in June 2023.
• Co-founder Fernando Domingues also founded telemedicine company Conexa Saúde and Cannect, a medicinal cannabis ecosystem. 

▸ EDTECH | Canary led a ~USD1.5m pre-seed round for Yuna, a Brazilian edtech platform, with participation from Positive Ventures. 

▸ Kortex Ventures led a ~USD1.2m round for Biologix, a Brazilian sleep medication startup, with participation from Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein.

▸ HEALTHTECH | Oliv-e, a Brazilian primary healthcare solutions startup, raised ~USD1m from Oasis Ventures. 

▸ EDTECH | BeConfident, a Brazilian education platform for English learners, raised ~USD500k from Latitud and undisclosed investors. 

▸ Alexia Ventures invested in CUB, a Brazilian receivables management startup. 

▸ IMPAQTO Capital invested in Cusi, an Ecuadorian organic foods startup.

▸ CLEANTECH | SQM Lithium Ventures invested in Movener, a Chilean hybrid-electric vehicles startup.

▸ Amplifica Capital invested in Retorna, a Chilean international money transfer platform.

Funds

▸ ACE Ventures (fka ACE Startups) reached a ~USD10m final close to invest in seed-stage startups in Latin America. 

• ACE Ventures’ recent disclosed investments include Frota 162, Speedio and Talent Academy.

News

▸ Salvy, a Brazil-based B2B virtual telecom operator, is the only startup from Latin America accepted to YC’s latest batch, down from 33 startups in W2022 and 16 in S2022.

▸ CENTRAL BANKS | The Central Bank of Argentina introduced API de Principales Variables, its first API to provide transparent and efficient information access to the data produced by the institution. 

▸ CRYPTO | Bancolombia launched a digital asset trading platform through its subsidiary Wenia. 

▸ LOGISTICS | SimpliRoute, a Chilean logistics intelligence platform, relocated its HQ to São Paulo.  

• Partners for Growth just led an undisclosed venture debt financing in March; TheVentureCIty led a USD3m Series A in April 2020. 

▸ Times have changed: Modo, the digital wallet backed by Argentina's leading traditional banks, reported Mercado Libre to the National Commission for the Defense of Competition for anticompetitive practices in the payments space. 

• Mercado Libre just announced a record USD2.4b investment from its balance sheet in Mexico in March. 

▸ IMPACT | Impact Alpha reviews the evolution of the impact investing strategy of select Latin American families including Gerdau (Brazil), Sesana (Colombia) and Sánchez-Navarro (Mexico). 

▸ Kauffman Fellows published a sentiment survey on GP perspectives and expectations for the macroeconomic and fundraising climate in 2024.

• On fundraising: “Notably, slightly more confidence from Non-Silicon Valley Firms versus Silicon Valley; and established managers are slightly more confident than emerging managers.”

People & Programs

▸ MARK YOUR CALENDAR | LAVCA will be hosting LAVCA Week on 8-11 October 2024 in New York. Stay tuned for announcements about registration opening.

▸ WOMEN-LED | Congrats to Anna Piñol for her promotion to Partner at NFX. 

• NFX’s recent deals in LatAm include Zubale, Praso, FLOKI, Nuvocargo and La Haus.

▸ Google for Startups launched AI Academy, a 10-week program to accelerate AI adoption by local startups looking to strengthen their computing and cloud infrastructure strategy. 

• Congrats to the Brazilian startups selected for this first edition: Advolve, Beep Saúde, Biti9, Creators, Easy B2B, Merama, Nama, Rocketmat, Tribute and Twiggy. 

▸ ABVCAP will host the ABVCAP Congress in São Paulo on 11-12 June. More information here. 

▸ Cubo Network will host VC.Vision: Mastering Fundraising and Liquidity for LatAm, its flagship event to connect GPs and LPs actively deploying capital in venture on 14 June in São Paulo. More details here. 

Global Tech

▸ Sign up for GPCA’s Global Tech Brief, a monthly newsletter that covers tech activity in Asia, Latin America, Africa, CEE and the Middle East. 

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.