Nubank Surpasses Itau in Market Cap; Mexico Elects First Woman President

LATAM VENTURE BULLETIN

A must-read roundup of startup deals and news on emerging technologies in Latin America, delivered to over 7,000 investors, entrepreneurs and corporates bi-weekly.

6 June 2024

The LatAm Venture Bulletin is produced by Carlos Ramos de la Vega, LAVCA’s Director of Venture Capital.

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

LAVCA Tech Brasil

Registration for LAVCA Tech Brasil 2024 is now open.

The program will include keynote fireside chats, breakout sessions and networking opportunities designed to build meaningful relationships amongst investors active in the region.

LAVCA Members are welcome to join us for a Members-only dinner right after 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 additional details in the coming weeks. Contact Marcelo Pizzato mpizzato@lavca.org with questions.

Deals

▸ Félix Pago, a US and Mexico-based cross-border WhatsApp payments startup, raised a USD15.5m Series A with follow-on from MELI Capital, the CVC arm of Mercado Libre, Switch Ventures, HTwenty and Contour.

▸ DATA | IGNIA Partners and Ulu Ventures co-led a USD15m pre-Series A for Novel, a US-based fundraising data platform for entrepreneurs, with participation from MatterScale and Gaingels.

▸ DEBT | Loopay, a Colombian treasury management platform, raised a USD10m debt round from undisclosed investors.

▸ AGTECH | ALB Investments led a USD6m pre-Series B for AgroUrbana, a Chilean agtech focused on vertical agriculture.

▸ AGTECH | Psyche Aerospace, a Brazilian agricultural spraying solutions startup, raised a ~USD2.8m Series A from undisclosed investors.

▸ Verde, a Brazilian lending platform for rural producers, raised a USD2.7m seed round from Y Combinator, Iporanga Ventures and undisclosed investors.

▸ LOGISTICS | Indicator Capital led a ~USD1.9m round for Infleet, a Brazilian fleet operations management platform, with participation from CV iDexo and follow-on from DOMO.

▸ HEALTHTECH | Syn Saúde, a Brazilian elective surgeries facilitation platform, raised a USD1.5m round from Osten Moove.

▸ HEALTHTECH | Cannect, a Brazilian medical cannabis marketplace, raised a ~USD1m round with 4Equity.

▸ EDTECH | CoGrader, a US-based generative AI grading system, raised a ~USD570k pre-seed round from Strive, Maze, ECMC and UC Berkeley.

▸ HRTECH | Consignei, a Brazilian payroll loans platform, raised ~USD566k from Bertha Capital.

▸ Afya Limited led a ~USD300k pre-seed round for Wanda, a Brazilian nursing recruitment platform.

▸ InvesTech led ~USD230k seed round for Actiz, a Brazilian quality control services startup, with participation from FUNSES1.

▸ Bertha Capital invested ~USD200kin BeBook, a Brazil-based hotel revenue management platform.

▸ Manzana Verde, a Mexico-based digital nutritionist platform, raised an undisclosed seed round from Ganas Ventures, Amplifica Ventures, Salkantay Ventures, Mr. Pink and Matterscale Ventures.

▸ Potato Valley Ventures invested in MoReCo, a Brazilian furniture subscription platform.

▸ CVC | BYX Ventures, the CVC fund of BYMA, invested in Vor-Tex, a Chilean no-code API platform.

▸ HONDURAS | Innogen Capital led an undisclosed round for Ginih, a Honduras-based B2B money disbursement platform, with participation from Grupo Agrisal and Grupo Steiner.

Exits and M&As

▸ M&A | Payment platform PayRetailers acquired Transfeera, a Brazilian open banking payment platform.

▸ CROSSBORDER | Chilean payments platform Koywe acquired Facto, a US-based invoicing platform.

▸ M&A | Evertec, a publicly-listed transaction processing platform, acquired Zunify, a Costa Rica-based e-commerce and POS payment platform.

Funds

▸ SEED | Semilla Ventures reached a USD9.25m first close for its inaugural fund to invest in pre-seed startups in Spanish-speaking Latin America.

▸ Brazilian accelerator Darwin Startups launched an inaugural fund with a ~USD25m target to invest in Brazilian pre-seed and seed-stage startups.

▸ CROSSBORDER | Brazil-based investor eB Capital partnered with the Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA) to foster collaboration between Brazilian and Middle Eastern institutional investors.

▸ ANGEL | Mexico-based Guadalajara Angel Investor Network (GAIN), launched a USD5m fund to invest in early-stage startups across Latin America.

News

▸ ELECTIONS | Claudia Sheinbaum won the presidential election in Mexico this Sunday. She will be the first woman president in the country’s 200 years since becoming independent.

▸ Bloomberg: Nubank Dethrones Itau to Become the Most Valuable Latin America Bank.

▸ CLOUD | Alibaba announced the launch of its first cloud region in Mexico through Alibaba Cloud.

▸ Argentine president Javier Milei met with big tech CEOs in Silicon Valley as part of his international engagement strategy.

People & Programs

▸ Congrats to Gina Diez Barroso (Grupo Diarq) and Antonio Soares (Dock) for winning EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2024 for Mexico and Brazil, respectively.

▸ MARK YOUR CALENDAR | LAVCA will be hosting LAVCA Week on 8-11 October in New York. Registration is now open for LAVCA Members.

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

▸ LAVCA, Google for Startups and Cubo Itaú will co-host Empower Breakfast on 13 June in São Paulo, a space for leading women in tech. LAVCA and Google for Startups will provide key data and exclusive research on GenAI and investment trends for women-led startups in the region. Registration is now open.

▸ 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.