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. |
Deals ▸ Riverwood Capital invested ~USD40m in Paytrack, a Brazil-based corporate travel and expense management startup. Parceiro Ventures invested in 2021. ▸ INSURETECH | PayPal Ventures led a USD13m Series B for Olé Life, a US-based life insurance provider for young adults in Latin America, with participation from Advent Morro and follow-on from Mundi Ventures and AV8 Ventures. Mundi Ventures and AV8 Ventures led a USD12m Series A in June 2023. ▸ MAYA Capital led a USD8.9m round for Jota, a Brazilian financial management platform for microbusinesses, with participation from HOF Capital, bigbets, Alter Global, Bogari Capital, Norte Ventures and angels Fersen Lambranho (GP Investments), Mateus Lambranho (HYPR), Mauro D'Ancona (180 Seguros), Dennis Wang (G4 Educação) and Pedro Fiuza (Servtec Energia). Astella Investimentos led a USD1.7m round in May 2019. ▸ Carboflix, a Brazilian app that offers services to truck drivers, raised USD3.4m from Varejo Mais and Cameo Investimentos. ▸ PuntoPost, a Mexican e-commerce delivery solutions startup, raised USD1.5m from 4Founders, JME Ventures, Latin Leap, Lanai, Inclimo and undisclosed angels. ▸ Magma Partners led a USD600k pre-seed round for PayMon, an Ecuador-based financial management platform for students and schools, with participation from Buen Trip Ventures, Pygma, Madelaine Clavijo (Valuaty) and Marc Sacal (AstroPay). ▸ DOMO.VC led a ~USD375k round for Caccao, a Brazilian financial solutions platform for social media influencers, with participation from A2 Capital, Spin Pay, Gustavo Caetano (Sambatech) and Diego Fonseca (Credit Suisse). ▸ Metrópole Parque, a Brazilian educational platform, raised USD200k from undisclosed investors. ▸ Gera Climate Ventures led a USD170k round for Lumo Robotics, a Brazilian startup that develops solar panel cleaning robots, with participation from undisclosed angels. |
M&As and Exits ▸ M&A | Prosus Ventures acquired Argentine booking and travel platform Despegar.com at a reported USD1.7b valuation. ▸ EXIT | KASZEK, Valor Capital Group, ONEVC, Moore Capital and VEF exited Gringo, a Brazilian car documentation management platform, through a ~USD172m sale to Sem Parar, Corpay’s vehicle payments brand in Brazil. Moore Capital led the latest ~USD12.5m Series C+ in Gringo in September 2024; Valor led a USD30m Series C in September 2023, VEF a USD38m Series B in March 2022 and KASZEK a USD8m round in November 2021. ▸ EXIT | Chilean accelerator Magical Startups exited Beeok, a Chilean sustainability compliance management platform for corporates, through a sale to an undisclosed Brazilian company. Magical Startups invested in a USD500k round for Beeok in June 2022 alongside Grupo Imagine Ventures. ▸ M&A | Bold, a Colombian payment platform for SMEs, acquired Tuily, a Colombian credit card and expense management platform. Bold raised a USD50m Series C led by General Atlantic in February 2024; Tuily raised USD120k from Techstars Ventures in March 2024, which then exited the company in December of that same year. ▸ M&A | Brazilian e-commerce platform VTEX acquired Newtail, a Brazilian market intelligence platform for retailers. big bets led a ~USD1.4m round for Newtail in March 2023 with participation from Verve Capital and Prodigio Capital; Latitud led a USD250k round in 2021. |
Funds ▸ Endeavor Catalyst launched its fifth flagship fund with a USD300m target to invest across emerging markets. Endeavor Catalyst reached a ~USD292m final close for Endeavor Catalyst Fund IV in June 2022. Endeavor’s latest investments publicly announced in Latin America include CareCode, Teachy, R2, minu and Solvento. ▸ ECUADOR | IMPAQTO, an Ecuador-based impact investing firm, reached a USD2.1m final close for its inaugural fund to invest in Andean startups through revenue-financing. IMPAQTO’s first fund original fund target was USD2m. IMPAQTO’s recent investments include tuGerente, Quenco, Cusi, Sinba and Fibrazo. ▸ Raio Capital launched its second flagship fund with a target of ~USD13-17m to invest in early-stage Brazilian startups. Raio Capital’s latest investments include NG.Cash, MeetRox, StopClub, Purple Metrics and Mighty Greens. |
News Recapping last week in global AI: ▸ DEEPSEEK | DeepSeek, a China-based AI platform backed by hedge fund High Flyer, launched R1, a cheaper and equally as fast open-source AI model compared to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Claude’s Sonnet. DeepSeek’s R1 is making investors re-underwrite the value of hyperscalers and making NVIDIA lose almost USD600b in market cap in a single day – the largest single share price drop for a US company in history. WSJ: SIlicon Valley Is Raving About a Made-In-China AI Model ▸ STARGATE | SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and UAE-based MGX announced Project Stargate, a new company that will invest USD500b over four years to build new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the USA. OpenAI will retain operating responsibility of the project, while SoftBank will hold financial responsibility, according to OpenAI. Masa Son of SoftBank will be the chairman. Elon Musk questioned whether the equity partners had secured the financing for the initiative; Satya Nadella of Microsoft confirmed he’s “good for his USD80b”. ▸ DATA CENTERS | AWS announced a USD5b investment in Mexico over the next 15 years to launch a new regional server with three data centers in the city of Queretaro. This is the second infrastructure initiative from AWS in the region, after launching the AWS South America regional server in Brazil in 2011. ▸ Chilean foodtech NotCo is re-focusing its strategy to the B2B and snacks segments in an effort to reach profitability in the short term. Founder Matias Muchnick is moving to Santiago from NY to lead the process. ▸ POLICY | Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum unveiled Plan Mexico, a public-private initiative that contemplates USD277b and 2k projects financed by domestic and foreign investment over the next six years. Plan Mexico includes a reform to simplify investment processes and a national digitization strategy. |
People and Programs ▸ AMEXCAP will host 2025 Mexico VC Day on 6 February in NY. Registration is now open. ▸ RAISE Global will host the inaugural edition of RAISE LATAM 2025 in Costa Rica on 21 March. GPs can apply to attend; LPs can request an invitation. ▸ Antler is now accepting applications for its 10-week 2025 entrepreneur residency in São Paulo, starting February. The residency is designed for individuals at the early stages of their founder journey, from those without a clear business idea to those with an MVP. Interested (future) founders are welcome to apply. |
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. |
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