OPEN CALL FOR MEMBERS

2024 LAVCA ESG Deal Awards

LAVCA is partnering with its member investors to showcase exemplary portfolio companies. This initiative is designed for a diverse audience comprising of global institutional investors, fund investors and strategic or long-term investors actively engaged or interested in Latin America.

Member GPs are invited to nominate a portfolio company deal for the 2024 LAVCA ESG Deal Awards. Deals can be across any asset class, including VC/tech, private equity, private credit and real assets. 

Submissions will be judged by a panel of LPs. Select deals will also be considered for publication in a monthly series of case studies.  

The deadline to submit a portfolio company is 26 January 2024. To nominate a deal, or for more information, please contact Marcelo Pizzato at mpizzato@lavca.org.

Deals

▸ Base10 led a USD41.5m Series B for Conta Simples, a Brazilian corporate card issuer for SMEs, with follow-on from Valor Capital Group, DOMO, Big Best, YC, Jam Fund and Broadhaven. 

• Valor and Jam Fund led a ~USD24.3m Series A in January 2022.
• Conta Simples just received approval from the Brazilian Central Bank to operate as a Sociedade de Crédito Direto (SCD).

▸ Tribe Capital led a USD40m Series B for Kapital, a Mexican finance management platform for SMEs, with participation from Cervin Ventures, Tru Arrow, MS&AD Ventures and Alumni Ventures. 

• DEBT | Kapital also raised a USD125m debt facility from undisclosed investors.
• Niya Partners and Tribe Capital led a ~USD20m Series A in May; Kapital also secured a USD45m debt facility from Accial Capital as part of the round, complementing the USD100m facility raised from US-based debt investor Sivo in October 2022.

▸ TRANSPORTATION | Tembici, a Brazilian micro-mobility platform focused on bikes with operations in Chile, Argentina and Colombia, raised USD23m from the DFC and IDB Invest. 

• BNDES invested ~USD32m in February; Tembici raised a ~USD10.6m round in October 2022 and a USD10m round led by Blue Like an Orange in April 2022.

▸ Glisco Partners invested USD20m in a Series C+ for Yalo, a Mexican conversational commerce platform for corporates and retailers. 

• B Capital led a USD50m Series C in June 2021 after also leading a USD15m Series B in 2020.  

▸ PROPTECH | Headline led a ~USD14.5 Series B for Trinus, a Brazilian residential project management platform.

▸ AGTECH | Agrotoken, an Argentine agricultural commodities tokenization startup, raised a USD12.5m Series A from Visa, Bunge and undisclosed investors. 

▸ Lachy Groom (Stripe) led a USD6m round for Hyperplane, a US-based data platform for Brazilian banks, with participation from Clocktower Technology Ventures, SV Angel, Liquid2 Ventures, Soma Capital, Latitud, Atman Capital, Crestone VC and Norte.

▸ Great Point Ventures led a USD5m round for Datalogz, a US-based data platform for companies, with participation from Graphene Ventures, Squadra Ventures, Berkeley Skydeck, Defined VC, Mana Ventures and Trajectory Ventures.

• Datalogz is co-founded by Mexican Pablo Lerdo de Tejada.

▸ CVC |Conexa Saúde, a Brazilian telemedicine marketplace, raised ~USD5m from Vivo Ventures. 

• Goldman Sachs Asset Management led a ~USD40m round in June 2022; Conexa Saúde raised a ~USD8m Series B from General Atlantic and Igah Ventures in July 2020.  

▸ EL SALVADOR | Endless Ventures and Televicentro Honduras led a USD5m equity and credit round for Mercandú, a Salvadoran e-commerce solutions platform. 

▸ DEEP, a Brazilian ESG monitoring platform for corporates, raised a ~USD4.5m Series A from CV iDexo, Vibra Ventures and 10M.

• iV Ventures led a ~UD1.8m seed round in July 2022.

▸ Anitya, a Brazilian low-code software startup, raised USD2m from Indicator Capital. 

▸ AGTECH | Draco Capital led a USD2m round for Deep Agro, an Argentine agricultural production analysis platform, with participation from Grupo Dacus, BYX Ventures, Innventure and Pampa Start. 

▸ HRTECH | MAYA Capital led a ~USD1.5m round for Start Carreiras, a Brazilian hiring platform for university students, with participation from Reach Capital and Graphene Ventures. 

▸ Bankme, a Brazilian platform structuring investment vehicles for startups and corporates, raised USD1.5m from DOMO.

• Bankme raised a ~USD1.1m round in August 2022.

▸ Car Big Data, a Brazilian vehicle monitoring and theft recovery platform, raised 

~USD1.1m from Citrino Ventures. 

• DOMO led a ~USD900k round in October 2022. 

▸ Dapta, a US-based Open Finance startup raised a USD1m pre-seed round from Paramo Partners, Fen Ventures, Kuiper VC, Invariantes Fund, LatinLeap, 500 Startups and undisclosed angels. 

• Dapta is founded by Colombian Nicolás Rojas.

▸ SaaSHolic led a USD1m seed round for Salvy, a Brazilian B2B virtual telecom operator, with participation from YC, João Del Valle (Ebanx) and Ariel Lambrecht (Mara). 

▸ BIOTECH | Südlich Capital led a USD850k round for Bifidice, a Chilean probiotics startup.

▸ Prosas, a Brazilian platform for organizing cultural projects, raised USD800k from KPTL and Cedro Capital. 

▸ EDTECH | Excuela, a Peruvian edtech for blue-collar workers, raised a USD700k pre-seed round from IDB and undisclosed angels. 

▸ InvestPlay, a Brazilian openfFinance startup, raised ~USD600k from BRQ, Osten Moove and Darwin Startups. 

▸ CVC | ObraLink, a Chilean sensor-based construction monitoring platform, raised USD500k from Polpaico Soluciones. 

• CEMEX Ventures and Gruas M10 led a USD2m round in June 2022. 

▸ Costa Rica-based investor Caricaco invested up to USD100k in each of seven Central American startups: Listo, Vitrinnea, Sento, Caldo, ONVO, Ábaco and Tobipets.

▸ Kamay Ventures invested in Sensify, an Argentine cold chain management startup.

▸ CVC | Citi led an undisclosed round for Supra, a Colombian cross-border payment solutions platform, with participation from Far Out Ventures and H20 Capital. 

▸ AGTECH | The Yield Lab invested in Symbiomics, a Brazilian agribusiness biotechnology startup.

▸ BIOTECH | Vesper Ventures and Ecoa Capital raised an undisclosed seed round for InEdita Bio, a Brazilian genome editing solutions startup. 

▸ GOVTECH | KPTL invested in Colab, a Brazilian civic engagement platform. 

• MDIF and Luminate invested ~USD600k in July 2020; MDIF and Flourish Ventures invested ~USD800k in 2017.

▸ Gard2n invested in OnlyPay, a Brazilian company payroll platform. 

▸ Urca Angels led an undisclosed seed round for Mercado de Recebíveis, a Brazilian POS platform, with participation from Inês Corrêa Souza (Magalu) and Marcelo Bella (Letsbank).

▸ Loto Punto, a Colombian kiosk-based microcredit and payments platform, raised an undisclosed round from Techstars, blockchain network Stellar and MoneyGram International.

Funds

▸ ALLVP is now Hi Ventures. 

Managing Partners Federico Antoni and Jimena Pardo: “Since we started, our entrepreneurial ecosystem has evolved and grown. Our firm has also changed. Hi means yes in Japanese, growth in Hebrew. In Spanish and Portuguese, it’s alto. Our name stands for human innovation. For intended purposes, this name change will have no impact on the team, strategy, or the management of the Fund.”

▸ DOMO launched Seed 4, its fifth flagship fund with a ~USD50m target to invest in B2C and B2B seed-stage startups in Brazil. 

• DOMO was amongst the most active early-stage investors in Latin America during 2023 with 14 public deals, according to LAVCA Data. 
• DOMO’s recent public investments include Bankme., Mission Brasil, Voltbras, Jà Vendeu.

▸ BIOTECH | Eurofarma, a Brazilian pharmaceutical conglomerate, launched Neuron Ventures II, its second early-stage fund with ~USD30m in committed capital to invest in healthtech and biotech startups in Brazil. 

• Eurofarma just launched Eurofarma Ventures, a ~USD100m CVC arm to invest in the US, Canada, Germany and Israel. 
• Eurofarma Ventures’ recent investments include Abcuro, an immunotherapy developer for treatment of autoimmune diseases, and Gen-t Science, a gene bank startup. 

▸ AGTECH | Rural Ventures launched its inaugural fund with a ~USD10-12m target to invest in early-stage agtech startups. 

• Rural Ventures is led by XP alums Fernando Rodrigues and André Amorim.
• Rural Ventures’ latest investments include AgroboardandArara Seed.

-Startup M&A & Exits

▸ EXIT | DGF exited the majority of its stake in Ingresse, a Brazilian ticketing platform, through a sale to an undisclosed FO.

• This is DGF’s 40th divestment. 
• DGF first invested ~USD400k in 2012, providing the first institutional backing for the startup. 

▸ M&A | Blip, a Brazilian CRM that runs on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, acquired GUS, a Mexican conversational service startup.

• Warburg Pincus invested USD70m in Blip in June 2022 and USD100m in October 2020. 

▸ M&A | Carryt, a Colombian e-commerce lastmile delivery platform acquired Liftit, a B2B Colombian logistics marketplace for independent truck drivers.

• Chilean-based Impacta VC invested in Carryt in March 2022.; Florida-based Cambridge Capital led a US$22.5m Series B for Liftit in 2020.

▸ M&A | Goomer, a Brazilian restaurant operations management platform, acquired Abrahão, a Brazilian restaurant technology solutions startup.

• DEBT | Goomer raised an undisclosed venture debt round from SP Ventures in May 2020.

▸ M&A | Resilia, a Brazilian education platform for high school and college education, acquired b.nous, a Brazilian microcourse platform for companies. 

• XP Investimentos acquired a minority stake in Resilia in 2021; Meta invested in b.nous in June 2022. 

▸ M&A | Visa acquired a majority stake in Prosa, a Mexican payments processing platform.

• Investors in Prosa include Invex, HSBC Mexico, Santander Mexico and Banjército.

News

▸ POLICY | The Brazilian government established a new National Cybersecurity Policy (PNCiber) to revamp its efforts to contain the rising cybercrime instances in the country. 

• The policy also institutes the creation of a National Cybersecurity Committee composed of private and public sector representatives to oversee regulatory developments. 

▸ PAYMENTS | The Chilean Financial Market Commission (CMF) authorized Shinkansen, a Chilean B2b payment infrastructure platform, to operate as the second payments clearing house in the country after the Centro de Compensación Automatizado (CCA). 

• ALLVP led a USD3m seed round in Shinkansen in July 2023, with participation from Salkantay Ventures and Chile Ventures.

▸ The Mexican Securities and Exchange Commission (CNBV) approved the launch of Banco Bineo, Banorte’s digital bank in Mexico. 

• Banco Bineo is expected to begin operations later this year.

▸ DRONES | The local government in Rio de Janeiro is using drones for seed distribution as part of its reforestation agenda. 

• The pilot program took place in Botafogo. 

People & Programs

▸ PromPeru will be hosting Peru Investment Opportunities, a forum on January 31st in Pasadena, California to showcase the tech opportunities in the country. Applications to attend are now open. 

▸ NXTP Ventures is looking for an Associate or Senior Associate to join its team out of its São Paulo office. Interested candidates are welcome to apply. 

▸ Capria Ventures is looking for a Senior Investment Analyst to join its team based in Mexico City or São Paulo. Interested candidates are welcome to apply. 

• Capria is also looking for an Investment Fellow to join its team in Brazil. Candidates can apply 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.