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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.
March 24, 2022
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Editor’s note: The LatAm Venture Bulletin is produced by Carlos Ramos de la Vega, LAVCA’s Director of Venture Capital. Former Editor Julie Ruvolo now publishes GPCA's global newsletter, the Global Tech Brief. | TLDR 📣 DEALS | New Rounds for Jeeves, Flash, Contabilizei, Glorify, Gringo, Trela, Medway, Intuitivo, Webdox and Kamino
📣 FUNDS | IFC commits USD20m to monashees and Valor Capital Group each; Salkantay reaches first close
📣 Ariel Lambrecht (99) and Ben Gleason (GuiaBolso) raise rounds for new ventures
📣 STARTUP SPOTLIGHT | LAVCA interviews Technisys CEO Miguel Santos
📣 HEALTHTECH |Rounds for Vittude, Aliena Health, Intuitive Care, wOS, Klivo and Cingulo |
| | ▸ Patria Latin American Opportunity Acquisition, a SPAC launched by Patria Investimentos, raised USD230m in an IPO on the NASDAQ to target a company operating in the healthcare, food and beverage, logistics, agribusiness, education or financial services sectors in Latin America.
▸ Tencent led a USD180m Series C for Jeeves, a US-based expense management platform for startups with operations in Latin America, at a reported USD2.1b valuation, with participation from Silicon Valley Bank, Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, GIC, Stanford University, FT Partners, Clocktower Ventures, Urban Innovation Fund, Haven Ventures, Gaingels, Spike Ventures and angel Carlo Enrico (Mastercard). ▸ HRTECH | Talent.com, a Canadian recruiting platform with operations in Brazil and Colombia, raised USD120m led by Inovia Capital, with participation from Investissement Quebec, Climb Ventures, BDC Capital, Fondaction and HarbourVest Partners, and follow-on from CDPQ.
▸ HRTECH | Battery Ventures and Whale Rock led a USD100m round for Flash, a Brazilian on-demand corporate benefits provider for executives, with follow-on from monashees, Tiger Global, GFC and Citius. ▸ SoftBank led a USD60m Series C for Contabilizei, a Brazilian tax filing and accounting platform for SMEs, with participation from Goldman Sachs and Pruven Capital, a US-based VC solely financed by Prudential Financial. ▸ SoftBank Latin America led a USD40m Series B for Glorify, a UK-based social prayer platform for Christians.
▸ UK-based VC VEF led a ~USD38m Series B for Gringo, a Brazilian car documentation management platform, with participation from UK-based VC Piton Capital and follow-on from KASZEK, ONEVC and GFC. - KASZEK led a USD8m round in November 2021.
▸ SoftBank Latin America led a USD25m Series A for Trela, a Brazilian food order aggregator for condos, with follow-on from KASZEK, General Catalyst and YC, and angel Pierpaolo Barbieri (Uala). - KASZEK and General Catalyst invested USD16m in March 2021.
▸ EDTECH | SoftBank led a ~USD15m Series A for Medway, a Brazilian medical education platform, with participation from GFC, EquitasVC, Aggir Ventures, Scale Up Ventures, Allievo Capital, Grao VC and Neuron Ventures, the CVC arm of Eurofarma.
▸ Andreessen Horowitz, KASZEK and monashees led a USD10m seed round for Yuno, a Colombian checkout platform for last-mile delivery startups, with participation from Nazca, ONEVC, Latitud and Bridge Partners. Yuno was founded by Rappi co-founder Juan Pablo Ortega. - Angels participating included Simon Borrero (Rappi), Ricardo Weder (Justo), Sujay Tile (Merama), Gerry Giacoman (Clara), Enrique Villamarin (Tul), Maria Echeverri (Muni) and Daniel Bilbao (Truora).
▸ Intuitivo, an Argentine software provider of computer sensors for point of sale transactions, raised a USD7.8m seed round from MeLi Fund and Yavu Ventures, and angels Sebastian Serrano (Ripio), Patricio Jutard (MURAL) and Cesar Melo (PepsiCo). ▸ Brazilian VC Taram Capital led a USD7.3m Series A for Webdox, a Chilean contract management platform expanding to Brazil, with participation from Kayyak Ventures, Alacrity Mexico, Canada Fund, ChileGlobal Ventures and Asenza Capital. ▸ HEALTHTECH | Crescera Capital led a ~USD7m Series A for Vittude, a Brazilian online therapy platform, with participation from Endeavor Scale Up Ventures, and follow-on from Repdoint eventures.
▸ Inspired Capital led a USD6.1m pre-seed round for Kamino, a Brazilian enterprise software platform for Latin American startups to incorporate as Delaware, Cayman or Brazilian entities, with participation from GFC, QED Investors, Picus Capital, Flourish Ventures, Propel VC, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Norte Ventures and Gilgamesh Ventures. - Kamino was founded by GuiaBolso co-founder Benjamin Gleason.
GuiaBolso received a term sheet from KASZEK in 2014 and had to go through the process of incorporating the company. Setting the entire structure was very painful. Fast forward to today, there is much more capital in the market, as well as many more founders and service providers. As I have done more angel investments and mentoring with Endeavor, I have seen operators still struggling with the same challenges around setting up their corporate and financial infrastructure than we did years ago.
Traditional service providers will tell founders they need to set up a Delaware entity first and then they can set up their local operating company, which adds 2-3 months to the incorporation process. Kamino will open a Brazilian entity for founders to begin operating while we work on setting up the rest of the structure abroad, so we can ultimately combine the two. Besides incorporation, Kamino streamlines setting up a company bank account with SVB, and if companies have received a term sheet from a top tier VC, we will also give them a line of credit so they can begin operating locally even before they receive the funds in the Cayman-entity.
- Ben Gleason, CEO ▸ IMPACT | Canary and Caffeinated Capital invested USD6m in Mara, a Brazilian grocery shopping platform offering items at wholesale prices to low-income communities. Mara was founded by 99 co-founder Ariel Lambrecht.
▸ Shift Capital led a ~USD6m round for Skelt Beauty Brands, a Brazilian bodycare holding company, with participation from Norte Ventures. ▸ Bertha Capital invested ~USD5.6m in Watch Brasil, an on-demand video streaming platform.
▸ CLEANTECH | Sugo Store, a Peruvian grocery platform offering soon-to-expire products, raised a USD5.5m seed round from IDB Lab, Nazca and FEMSA Ventures.
▸ Canary and Kinea Ventures, the CVC arm of Itaú, led a ~USD5.2m seed round for Saks, a Brazilian pension brokerage.
▸ CAF, Confama and Ewa Capital invested in Sempli, a Colombian lending platform for SMEs, with follow-on from IDB Lab, Oikocredit and Incofin. - Sempli raised USD10m in October 2021 and USD8m in 2019.
▸ PROPTECH | Quona Capital led a USD4.7m seed round for Acasa, a Colombian real estate financing and home purchase platform, with participation from Metaprop, and follow-on from Wollef and YC. - DEBT | Acasa also raised USD33m in debt from Architect Capital.
- Acasa raised a USD1.2m pre-seed round in 2021.
▸ HEALTHTECH | Founders Fund led a ~USD4m round for Aliena Health, a Brazilian corporate health benefits platform, with participation from General Catalyst. ▸ PROPTECH | SoftBank Latin America led a USD3.5m round for Neivor, a Colombian rental management platform, with participation from Magma Partners, Marathon VC, Creston Venture Capital and Two Culture Capital, and angels Loreanne Garcia (Kavak) and Courtney McColgan (Runa). - Neivor raised USD600k in March 2021.
▸ FOODTECH | Kitchenita, an Argentine dark kitchen operator, raised a USD3m Series A from FJ Labs, Newtopia, Unpopular VC, Flambeau and Magma Partners.
▸ Kindred Ventures led a USD3m seed round for Noh, a Brazilian digital wallet, with participation from Positive Ventures, Future Positive, The Twenty Minute VC and Propel Ventures Partners. - Angels participating include Patrick Sigrist (iFood), Andre Penha (QuintoAndar), Tom Blomfield (Monzo), Pedro Conrade (Neon), Ayo Omojola (Cash App), Dhaval Chadha (Justos) and Scott Belsky (Behance).
▸ HRTECH | Quiet Capital led a USD2.4m round for Zazos, a Brazilian aggregator of HR management solutions.
▸ Fast Shop, a Brazilian electronics company, invested ~USD2m in Zissou, a Brazilian mattress and sleeping product manufacturer.
▸ PROPTECH | DRONES | Yamaha Motor Brasil led a ~USD1.9m in ARCAP, a Brazilian manufacturer of crop monitoring drones.
▸ MAYA Capital led a ~USD1.6m round for Vendah, a Brazilian women-focused social commerce platform, with participation from Norte Ventures and angels Ariel Lambrecht (99), Sergio Furio (Creditas) and Robson Privado (MadeiraMadeira).
▸ NY-based Expa and LEAP Global Partners led a USD1.5m pre-seed round for Aument, an Argentine marketing management platform for SMEs, with participation from Hive Hatch, Matterscale Ventures, H20, Newtopia, Latitud and angel Francisco Alvarez-Demalde (Riverwood Capital).
▸ BLOCKCHAIN | OS City, a Mexico-and Argentina-based digital identity wallet for interacting with public institutions and governments, raised a USD1.5m pre-seed round from CAF, Blackburn and Orient Space.
▸ INSURTECH | Sostengo, a Salvadoran health and life insurance provider, raised USD1.5m from undisclosed investors.
▸ HEALTHTECH | Vox Capital led a ~USD1.4m round for Intuitive Care, a Brazilian finance management platform for hospitals and healthcare operators, with participation from Invest Tech and Bold Capital.
▸ Magma Partners and Anteris invested USD1.3m in Cura Deuda, a Mexican debt obligation consulting platform.
▸ HEALTHTECH | Noemis Ventures and YC invested USD1.2m for wOS, a Mexican on-demand fitness platform.
▸ HEALTHTECH | Yaya Capital and Kortex Ventures led a ~USD1m Series A+ for Klivo, a healthcare monitoring platform for chronic diseases. ▸ FOODTECH | Peruvian investor Prime Cien Capital led a USD850k pre-seed round for Wicuk, a Peruvian dark kitchen and food brand accelerator.
▸ DOMO Invest led a ~USD600k round for Agenda Boa, a Brazilian invoice and operations and invoice management platform for independent contractors.
▸ Voltbras, a Brazilian manufacturer of charging stations for EVs, raised ~USD600k from EDP Ventures, Iberdrola and DOMO Invest.
▸ CVC | Mercosul Ventures led a ~USD500k round for Desko, a Brazilian office workspace management platform.
▸ AGTECH | German VC BMPI Ventures invested in 100% Livre, a Brazilian vertical agriculture platform.
▸ HEALTHTECH | DNA Capital invested in Cingulo, a Brazilian on-demand mental health platform.
▸ CVC | Cemex Ventures invested in PartRunner, a US-based last-mile delivery platform for construction companies.
▸ CRYPTO | Angel Ventures led an undisclosed pre-seed round for Let’sBit, an Argentine blockchain-based digital bank, with participation from Primary Ventures. |
| M&A ▸ CRYPTO | 2TM, the parent company of Mercado Bitcoin, acquired Wuzu, a Brazilian digital asset exchange.
▸ HRTECH | Buk, a Chilean employee workflow and payroll management platform, acquired Payflow, a Chilean employee payment platform. ▸ Grupo Primo, a Brazilian finance and marketing holding company, acquired Grao, a Brazilian personal finance management platform. |
| | | | ▸ IFC made a USD20m commitment to Monashees Fund X, monashees’ tenth fund, with a USD350m target.
▸ IFC made a USD20m commitment to Valor Venture IV, Valor Capital Group’s fourth fund, with a USD250m target.
▸ Salkantay held an undisclosed first close for Salkantay Exponential Fund, a Peru-based fund with a USD25m target to invest in early-stage startups in Central America. We are very proud of what we have accomplished so far, but we could not have done it without our partners: From PRODUCE (the Peruvian Production Ministry), to Capria, to the IBD Lab... there is a great emerging opportunity in the venture space in the [Andean] region, one that is following the trajectory that we have seen in Brazil and Mexico." - Luis Arbulu, Managing Director ▸ AgeRio, Rio de Janeiro’s Development Agency, invested ~USD1.5m in Fundo Govtech, a fund jointly managed by KPTL and Cedro Capital, investing in early-stage startups addressing problems in the public sector. - Brazilian electronic device manufacturer Multilaser made ~USD4m commitment in October 2021.
▸ CVC | Lojas Renner, a Brazilian retail fashion company, launched RX Ventures, a ~USD31m CVC fund targeting investments in retail, fashion, logistics and fintech early-stage startups. |
| Fund Launches
▸ Ganas Ventures launched a fund with a USD10m target to invest in early-stage startups in historically overlooked communities.
- Ganas was founded by former Backstage Capital alum Lolita Taub and has secured USD1.2m in commitments from Arlan Hamilton (Backstage Capital), Gale Wilkinson (Vitalize Ventures) and Elizabeth Yin (Hustle Fund).
▸ Bradesco Asset Management launched Explorer, a fund of funds with a ~USD50m target to invest in local private equity, venture capital and impact investment fund managers. - Bradesco has already made undisclosed commitments to Crescera Capital, Lightrock and Iporanga.
▸ Brazilian fund manager TM3 Capital will manage a ~USD50m FIP (Fundo de Investimento em Participação) from the Brazilian Banco de Desenvolvimento do Espírito Santo (Bandes) to invest in early-stage startups. |
| Startups ▸ Brazilian home goods e-commerce platform MadeiraMadeira will invest ~USD20m out of its balance sheet to launch 100+ brick-and-mortar stores. - MadeiraMadeira raised a ~USD190m Series E led by SoftBank and Dynamo in January 2021.
▸ Lemon, an Argentine crypto banking platform, launched operations in Brazil. ▸ NFT | Moss, a Brazilian blockchain-based marketplace for companies to trade carbon credits, launched an NFT collection of the Amazon rainforest. - Moss raised a USD10m Series A led by SP Ventures and Acre.VC in February 2022.
▸ INSURTECH | Asistensi, a Spain-based insurance and telemedicine service provider to families of Latin American and Southeast Asian migrant workers, was granted an insurance license to operate in the US. ▸ The Generalist reviews the expansion of Colombian social e-commerce platform Elenas in Latin America and its similarities with Chinese and Indian platforms Pinduoduo and Meesho. - Elenas raised a USD6m round from Leo Capital, FJ Labs, alpha4 Ventures and Meesho in March 2021.
▸ EBANX Co-Founder João del Valle shares his view of the intersection between alternative payment methods, gaming and the metaverse in Latin America. |
| Startup Spotlight Technisys 
SoFi, a US-based consumer finance management platform, recently acquired Technisys, a digital banking platform with operations in Latin America, the US and Canada in a USD1.1b all-stock transaction.
LAVCA interviewed Technisys CEO Miguel Santos on the acquisition, the evolution of digital banking since the company’s’ launch two decades ago, and the current trends of Banking as a Service and embedded finance in Latin America.
LAVCA: How has Technisys evolved since its launch more than 20 years ago?
Miguel Santos: A friend of mine refers to Technisys as a “20-year overnight success”. We started the company with the idea of creating an internet banking platform and the idea was powerful; the internet was barely coming into our lives and transforming everything. There is no garage culture in our countries, but we literally started the company from a living room with only three computers on top of a piano.
Back then, even when we had the right vision we didn't have the proper experience and did not know how to run a business. All in all, we were not really well prepared and we did not know about the tools of venture capital. At that time there was no LAVCA, no Riverwood Capital, no KASZEK, and no Dalus Capital in our region, so it was very difficult to fundraise in Latin America.
We probably started the company 10 years earlier than the actual market existed. We were first knocking doors in banks and people weren’t even using the internet, but slowly we realized how big the trend was going to be for the region.
We ended up bootstrapping the company for more than 10 years. Our first round in 2009 was only a million dollars, which was very decent for a round. Now, a million dollars might only be the size of an angel investment. After facing the Argentine crisis in 2001 combined with the dot-com crash, we got to survive and were selected as Endeavor entrepreneurs. From that point on, we never stopped growing for a single year. Endeavor planted on us the idea of going big and creating scalable businesses.
Read the full interview with Miguel Santos. |
| News ▸ POLICY |The Brazilian Central Bank announced a new regulatory framework to increase fintech’s minimum capital requirements to operate locally.
▸ POLICY | Chilean President Sebastian Pinera signed into law a proposal to enable CORFO to operate as a fund of funds.
▸ Shares of Nubank can now be bought in Mexico through listings in Mexican stock exchanges BIVA and BMV. - Nubank listed in the US through the NYSE and in Brazil through the B3 in December 2021 at a USD40b+ valuation.
- EDTECH | Nubank also partnered with Colombian edtech Platzi to offer 200 scholarships for personal finance management education for women in Mexico and Colombia.
▸ CRYPTO | El Salvador is preparing to launch the first Bitcoin-backed bond after making Bitcoin legal tender in September 2021. ▸ Jeff Bezos visited Colombia’s Serania de Ciribiquite national park as part of the Bezos Earth Fund, his USD10b pledge to fight climate change.
▸ Galileo, a US-based payment process and subsidiary of consumer finance management platform SoFi Technologies, launched operations in Colombia. - SoFi just acquired Technisys, a digital banking platform with operations in Latin America, for USD1.1b in an all-stock transaction.
▸ CROSSBORDER | Chinese social media platform Kwai is the third most downloaded app in Brazil, rivaling TikTok. Kwai’s growth in Brazil mirrors its rise in China. Kwai’s parent company, Kuaishou, launched its short-form video platform in 2013, reaching lower-income users with featured vlogs of rural farmers, factory workers, and traditional artisans. While TikTok in Brazil focuses on “younger audiences, teenagers, mainly centered in the [richer] southeast region, Kwai serves a demographic from historically marginalized northeastern states.” ▸ CRYPTO | LatinTrade reviews Mercado Libre’s current bet on crypto in Follow the Leader: When the biggest -ecommerce player in Latin America bets on cryptocurrencies, others are bound to do the same. |
| People & Programs LAVCA WEEK | Save the date for LAVCA Week 2022, taking place in person on October 12-14 at the Conrad New York Downtown in New York City. The 2022 conference will convene LAVCA’s unparalleled network of private capital investors from across Latin America, the US, Asia and other global markets for a highly interactive experience, including networking and discussions on the latest trends in private equity, venture capital and other private capital strategies. GPC CONFERENCE | The GPC Conference in partnership with IFC will take place in person on April 4-6 at the Conrad New York Downtown in New York City. View the agenda and register here.
▸ Globant Ventures, Globant’s CVC arm, launched a USD10m fund to invest in startups working to mitigate the negative effects of tech, including issues around data privacy, AI bias, online abuse and polarization. The BeKind Fund is looking at early-stage startups regardless of geography. Founders are welcome to apply. "We believe that tech is inherently good. But when misapplied, it can divide communities around the world. As tech leaders, we are taking a stand.” ▸ WOMEN-LED | Congratulations to women-led startups Getin, Prosperia, ioio and Vinco for being selected to participate in the LAC Women Founders Accelerator, a program hosted by Google in partnership with IDB Lab.
▸ Endeavor Argentina announced the startups selected to participate in the new edition of its ScaleUp program: Lemon, Karvi, Alkemy, Bricksave, Filadd and Nulinga.
▸ CRYPTO | Valor Capital Group launched Crypto Seed Program, an investment track for early-stage startups. Interested founders are welcome to apply.
▸ Spectra Investments is looking for an Associate to expand its investment team in São Paulo. Interested candidates are welcome to apply at rh@spectrainvest.com |
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