Deals

▸ ADDI, a Colombian point-of-sale lending platform, raised a USD36m round from GIC, Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures. 

• DEBT | ADDI also secured USD50m in debt financing from Goldman Sachs; Goldman Sachs and Architect Capital provided USD120m in debt financing in December 2021.
• GIC led a USD80m round for ADDI in December 2021; Greycroft led a USD75m Series B+ in September 2021. 

▸ Magma Partners led a USD28m Series A equity and debt round for Leasy, a Peruvian financing platform for ride-hailing drivers, with participation from Entangle Group, DeBa Ventures, Noa Capital and Grupo CAPEM.

• Leasy raised a USD2m seed round and secured USD15m in debt financing in March 2022.

▸ INSURTECH | Valor Capital Group and Across led a ~USD22m round for Akad, a Brazilian insurtech platform, with participation from Actyus, Endeavor Catalyst and Endeavor Scale Up. 

▸ Delend, a Brazilian financial management platform for SMEs, raised ~USD20m from AirBorne Ventures, 2TM Capital and undisclosed angels. 

• Delend acquired minority stake in Rede OK, a Brazilian credit verification platform.

▸ J Ventures, FJ Labs and Rise Capital led a USD11m round for InstaCarro, a Brazilian car marketplace connecting owners of used cars to dealerships.

• InstaCarro raised a ~USD23m Series B in August 2021. 

▸ DEBT | Koin, a Brazil-based digital wallet, secured a USD7.2m in debt through a FIDC (Fundo de Investimentos em Direitos Creditorios). 

• Koin raised ~USD3m from the IFC in 2018. 

▸ Astella Investimentos led a ~USD7m Series A for Techome, a Brazilian smart home startup, with participation from Endeavor Scale-Up Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst.

▸ Copilot Money, a US-based personal finance management platform, raised a USD6m Series A from Adjacent. 

• Copilot Money was founded by Chilean Andrés Ugarte.

▸ Headline invested ~USD5m in Turn2C, Brazilian analytics platform for financial consortium providers.

• Honey Island Capital led a ~USD1.7m round in June 2022.

▸ Ease Labs, a Brazilian developer of cannabis-based medicine, raised ~USD5m from Airborne Ventures, American L5 Capital Partners, BullSide Capital and undisclosed angels.  

• DEBT |Ease Labs raised ~USD3m in venture debt from Itaú BBA in May 2023.
• MadFish led a ~USD2.4m round in June 2022. 

▸ Deciens Capital led a USD4.3m seed round for Grupago, a Mexico-based digital microcredit lender for SMEs, with participation from Clocktower Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Twine Ventures, Zac Bookman (OpenGov), Oso Trava (Cracks Fund), Pepe Shabot (ION Mexico) and Paul Sawaya (Human Interest).

• This is Deciens Capital’s first known investment in a Mexican company, according to LAVCA Data.  

▸ PulpOS, a Mexican sales management platform, raised a USD4m seed round from Andreessen Horowitz, H20 Capital Innovation, Lititude and Newtopia.

▸ umgrauemeio, a Brazilian forest fire monitoring platform, raised USD3.7m from Indicator Capital, Baraúna Investimentos, The Yield Lab Latam and Rural Ventures.

▸ Headline led a ~USD3m round for Arquiteto de Bolso, a Brazilian interior design startup. 

▸ LEGALTECH | Alexia Ventures led a ~USD3m Series A for Lexter.ai, a Brazilian legaltech company, with participation from Grao, Canary and Endeavor Scale Up. 

▸ LOGISTICS | Freto, a Brazilian freight marketplace that spun out of Edenred, an international corporate services platform, raised a ~USD2.4m round from Edenred, Corrêa da Silva and Stumpf families, and angel Christiano Galló (Quartz Investimentos).

• Freto raised a ~USD4.5m seed round in July 2021.

▸ Canary led a ~USD2.3m pre-seed round for Inner AI, a Brazilian content creation platform, with participation from LASP Capital, Play9, Alexia Ventures, Crivo Ventures and Newtopia VC.

▸ EDTECH | Max.AI, a Brazilian personalized education platform for students, raised ~USD2m from Positivo Tecnologia.

▸ Valor Capital Group and Lanx Capital led a USD1.5m pre-seed round for Advolve, a Brazilian digital marketing platform, with participation from Veredas Partners and Verve Capital. 

▸ Bertha Capital led a ~USD1.5m round for CashU, a Brazilian B2B embedded finance platform for SMEs, with follow-on from ABSeed Ventures, Caravela Capital and undisclosed angels. 

• ABSeed led a ~USD1.2m round in December 2021. 

▸ Nanogrow, an Uruguayan biotech startup developing nanoantibodies to treat skin diseases, raisedUSD1.2m from AtGen, GridX and undisclosed investors. 

▸ Taxo, a Mexico-based tax preparation platform, raised a USD1.2m pre-seed round from 500 Global, BuenTrip Ventures, Seedstars,, Newlin Ventures and undisclosed investors. 

▸ Kontigo, a Venezuela-based digital wallet, raised a USD1m pre-seed round from HF0, Orange DAO, Soma Capital, Transpose VC, Founders Inc. and undisclosed investors. 

▸ PROPTECH | ComunidadFeliz, a Chilean operations and finance management platform for condominiums, raised a USD1m debt round from BTG Pactual. 

• Clout Capital invested USD2m in July 2020.

▸ Airnguru, a Chile-based price automation solutions platform for airlines, raised USD1m pre-Series A from undisclosed investors. 

▸ DOMO invested ~USD790k in IZI, a Brazilian retail management startup.

▸ AGTECH | Plataforma Puma, an Argentine environmental impact tracking startup for agribusiness, raised USD700k from undisclosed investors. 

▸ Bossa Invest and GV Angels led a ~USD700k round for HubLocal, a Brazilian SEO consultancy for SMEs.

• HubLocal raised ~USD460k in October 2021; Anjos do Brasil invested ~USD120k in September 2020. 

▸ Foccuz, an Uruguay- and Chile-based sales management platform, raised a ~USD700k seed round with participation from Carabela, MGV Capital, Kuiper VC and Invariantes.

▸ HEALTHTECH | DOMO led a ~USD600k round for Wellbe, a Brazilian health plan management startup. 

▸ LOGISTICS | Avancargo, an Argentine logistics platform, raised USD500k from Globant, Murchison and Puerto Asis. 

▸ Techstars led a ~USD400k pre-seed round for Mercado Único, a Brazilian food waste management startup.

▸ H20 Capital led a ~USD250k pre-seed round for Nemu, a Brazilian marketing campaign management startup, with participation from angels Guilherme Bonifácio (iFood), André Siqueira (RD Station), Diego Libanio (Zé Delivery) and Raoni Lapagesse (B2W).

▸ WOMEN-LED | Nuu, a Brazilian cassava-based foods startup, raised ~USD200k from FDC Angels and investidores.vc.

• EcoEnterprises led a ~USD4m round in August 2023.
• Nuu was founded by Rafaela Gontijo Lenz.

▸ Remote Waters, a Chilean water purification startup, raised USD200k from SQM Lithium Ventures. 

▸ CROWDFUNDING | Restin, a Brazilian food waste management startup, raised ~USD140k through crowdfunding. 

▸ HEALTHTECH | Vacinas.net, a Brazilian vaccination services marketplace, raised ~USD140k from crowdfunding. 

• DOMO Invest led a ~USD180k round in January 2022.

▸ Fintalk, a Brazilian service channel management platform, raised an undisclosed follow-on round from Volt Investments. 

▸ EDTECH | Ada, a Brazilian career training platform, raised an undisclosed pre-Series A from Wayra and QMS Capital. 

▸ PROPTECH | Headline invested in Upik, a Brazilian interior design platform. 

▸ HRTECH | Seresa Experian invested in Palenca, a Mexican professional identity verification platform.

• Palenca raised a USD2.6m round in January 2022.

▸ Great North Ventures invested in Mangxo, an Argentine credit tracking system for material suppliers.

Funds

▸ NY-based VC AlleyCorp reached a USD250m final close for its first institutional fund to invest in US- and LatAm-based startups. 

• AlleyCorp previously invested ~USD375m of proprietary capital to date; this is the first time the fund raises third party capital. 
• AlleyCorp was founded by Business Insider and MongoDB co-founder Kevin Ryan; former Chiper CTO Jose Oberto heads AlleyCorp’s LatAm practice.
• AlleyCorp’s Latin America portfolio includes Moons, Quinoa, Mundi, ADDI and Ualá.

▸ Latitud Ventures reached a USD12m first close for its second flagship fund which will now operate independently from the operating platform offering scalability solutions for founders.

• Latitud’s inaugural fund reached a USD13m final close in March 2021. 
• LPs in the fund include NFX, FJ Labs, Globo Ventures, Valiant Capital, Galicia Ventures and Industry Ventures. 

▸ CLIMATE | Sunna Ventures launched a USD40m fund to invest in climatetech startups globally but with a strong focus on those operating within Latin America. 

• The fund is anchored by WildSur Inversiones, the FO of the Leria Luksic family in Chile. 
• Sunna Ventures’ investment themes include energy transition, critical materials, and food and agriculture security. 
• Sunna Ventures is led by former Salkantay Ventures GP Luis Arubulú. 

▸ Verve Capital launched its second flagship fund with a USD10m target to be the first institutional check into early stage Brazilian startups. 

• Verve Capital’s recent investments include Advolve, Brick Seguros, Newtail, Hubii, Tipspace, Vidia and Treggo.

▸ BR Angels partnered with ID Gestora to launch a ~USD3m fund to invest in pre-seed startups in Brazil.

• BR Angels’s recent investments include 4MDG, Agidesk, Arqgen, Epic Digitais and Inspectral.

 Exits and M&A

▸ EXIT | Canary, NIU Ventures, CSN Ventures and EDP Ventures exited Clarke Energia, a Brazilian B2B electric power marketplace, through a 70% ownership sale to Brazilian electric utility company Energisa.

• EDP Ventures led a ~USD1.3m round in January 2022; Canary led a ~USD640k round in May 2020. 

▸ M&A | WeKall, a Colombian cloud-based corporate telephone service, acquired Sirenna AI, a Mexican call transcription and analysis platform. 

• WeKall raised USD300k from Carao Ventures and Imagine Ventures in January 2023; Carao and Prodigio Capital invested USD1.2m in December 2021. 
• Platanus Ventures invested USD100k in Sirenna in 2022. 

▸ M&A | Asaas, a Brazilian payment management platform, acquired NexInvoice, a Brazilian telecommunications expense management platform.

• Asaas raised a ~USD30m Series B+ in June 2023; Inovabra led a ~USD7.5m round in October 2020.

▸ M&A | Mexican enterprise software company Grupo Directo acquired Habitué, a Uruguay-based restaurant management platform. 

• Habitué was the first Uruguayan startup selected to participate on 500 Global’s accelerator program in Latin America in 2022.

 News

▸ HRTECH | Gympass, a Brazilian corporate wellness platform, rebranded to Wellhub ahead of a potential IPO. 

• EQT Growth led a USD85m Series F at a USD2.4b valuation in 2023; General Atlantic, Bicycle and Moore Strategic Ventures also participated in the round. 
• Gympass currently operates in six markets outside of LatAm, including the US, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Italy and the UK. 

▸ CROSSBORDER | The Mexican Securities and Banking Commission (CNBV) approved Revolut, a UK-based mobile banking startup, to operate in Mexico. 

• Revolut launched operations in Brazil in May 2023. 
• Revolut’s investors include SoftBank, Tiger Global, DST Global and TCV. Revolut has raised USD2b+ in financing to date.

▸ Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin launched MB Startups, an equity crowdfunding platform to invest in both primary and secondary offerings and provide liquidity to Brazilian startups that have previously raised an early-stage round. 

▸ CHIPS | NYT suggests Costa Rica can become a key strategic geography for microchip packaging and testing for the US outside of Asia in Is This the Silicon Valley of Latin America?

People & Programs

▸ Valor Capital Group appointed former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman as its newest Managing Partner. 

• Schulman to Axios: “Latin America, in particular, is becoming more important to the U.S. as many companies begin to pull out of China to nearshore in places like Mexico and Brazil.”

▸ WOMEN LED | DOMO VC appointed former Grão Founding Partner Monica Saccarelli as its newest Partner. 

▸ dLocal appointed Pedro Arnt as CEO as founder Sebastian Kanovich steps down. 

• Arnt and Kanovich led the payments platform as Co-CEOs for eight months as Arnt stepped down as Mercado Libre CFO, a role he held for 12 years. 
• dLocal raised USD618m in its IPO on the NASDAQ in July 2021; Alkeon Capital and General Atlantic led private rounds previously.

▸ The 4th edition of the VC LatAm Summit will be hosted in Miami on 16-17 April. Interested founders and investors are welcome to register. 

• Organizing local associations include: ARCAP, ABVCA, BOCAP, CAPCA, ACVC, COLCAPITAL, ECUACAP, AMEXCAP, PARCAPY, PECAP, VENECAP and URUCAP.

▸ IDB Lab partnered with TechnoArt to launch Miami LAC Gateway, the first edition of an immersion program for startups interested in establishing operations in Miami as a first touchpoint to expand their footprint in the US. Interested founders are welcome to apply. 

▸ The EU-LAC Digital Accelerator just opened applications for its matching program focused on connecting LatAm and European startups with corporates seeking to expand their exposure to tech-enabled solutions. Interested startups and corporates are welcome to apply before 30 April.

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.