LatAm Venture Bulletin |
> Building on the success of VC training programs in New York, Silicon Valley, Buenos Aires, Santiago, and MedellÃn, LAVCA is partnering with PECAP to host a virtual training designed for VC fund managers, new corporate ventures, family offices, heads of accelerators, and select angel investors active in the region.
The program will take place on October 27 from 2:30pm-5:30pm EST and on October 28 from 9:00am-12:15pm EST.
> Program Highlights: 🔥 Open Q&A with Nicolás Szekasy
Nicolás Szekasy, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, KaszeK Ventures, leads a candid opening discussion on how the firm navigated from its early days to current status as one of the region’s referential VCs.
🔥 VC Fundraising
A discussion with Fernando Lelo de Larrea, Managing Partner, ALLVP, Rodrigo Baer, Partner, Redpoint eventures, and Cristóbal Perdomo, General Partner, Jaguar Ventures, about strategy, challenges, and successes with recent fundraising for new vehicles.
🔥 LP Seminar & Pitch Session: Sourcing and Securing LP Commitments
A session facilitated by Javier Diaz-Fajardo, CEO, Bancoldex; Susana GarcÃa-Robles, Venture Partner, Capria Ventures, Executive Advisor, LAVCA; and Francisco Valdés from family office Olivo Capital. A special thanks to COFIDE, IDB, Cooperación Suiza-SECO, and Latin American Tech Growth Coalition partners including AWS, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Visa for their support in delivering practical training to Latin America’s emerging cohort of tech investors.
REGISTER HERE by October 23 or contact Carlos Ramos de la Vega, LAVCA’s Manager of Venture Capital, at cramos@lavca.org to inquire about attending.
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| > #UNICORN 🦄 SoftBank, DST Global, and Greenoaks Capital led an undisclosed round in Kavak, a Mexican car resale marketplace, with participation from QED Investors and follow-on from KaszeK Ventures and General Atlantic, at a reported US$1.2b valuation, making Kavak the first Mexican unicorn. This brings Kavak’s total capital raised to over ~US$400m, according to the company. SoftBank and General Atlantic invested in Kavak earlier this year through a secondary sale that provided an #EXIT for Mexico-based VC Mountain Nazca, which led the company’s US$3m seed round in 2016. General Atlantic and KaszeK Ventures invested in previous rounds. Kavak is the third new unicorn in Latin America in the past month, after dLocal (Uruguay) and VTEX (Brazil). > #PE Warburg Pincus acquired a US$100m minority stake in Take Blip, a Brazilian CRM that runs on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Take Blip’s clients include Claro, Itaú Unibanco, Coca-Cola, Localiza, Fiat, and TruckPad. > Riverwood Capital invested R$50m in a Series B extension in Cortex, a Brazilian SaaS marketing and sales platform, with participation from Redpoint eventures and Endeavor Catalyst. SoftBank’s Latin America Fund led the US$22m Series B in June. > KaszeK Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures led a US$30m Series C in Tiendanube/Nuvemshop, an Argentine ecommerce platform with operations in Brazil and Mexico, with participation from FJ Labs and angel Kevin Efrusy, and follow-on from IGNIA Capital and Elevar Equity. Elevar Equity led a US$7m Series B in Tiendanube in 2017. KaszeK Ventures and NXTP Ventures invested previously. > #IMPACT #LOGISTICS IDB Invest invested R$95m in FreteBras, a Brazilian freight marketplace, through its Clean Technology Fund. As part of the investment, FreteBras will improve its carrier matching process to reduce idle truck capacity. The Clean Technology Fund is a US$5.5b multilateral investment vehicle established in 2008 by the World Bank, the IDB, and others to provide concessional financing to public and private sector initiatives to foster development in renewable energy, low carbon technologies, energy efficiency, and clean transport. > #DEBT Colombian restaurant management platform MUY Tech rebranded to RobinFood and raised US$16m in debt financing from Miami-based VC MGM Sustainable Energy Fund. RobinFood is founded by Domicilios.com Co-Founders Jose Guillermo Calderón and Miguel McAllister. In 2019, RobinFood raised a US$15m Series B led by ALLVP and a US$4m Series A led by Seaya Ventures. > Fuse Capital, Suquet Capital Partners, and 4P Investimentos, the family office of the late plastic surgeon Ivo Pitanguy, led a R$40m Series A in Fligoo, a San Francisco-based sales data analysis platform for corporations in Brazil and Argentina.
> #CVC Brazilian shopping center managers brMalls, Cyrella Commercial Properties, and Multiplan invested R$30m in Delivery Center, a Brazilian platform connecting digital vendor marketplaces with brick-and-mortar retail stores.
> #IMPACT #CLIMATETECH Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Serena Ventures, Aglae Ventures, Air Angels, Sweet Capital, and ThirdKind Ventures invested US$5m in Pachama, a San Francisco-based marketplace for carbon offset projects with initiatives in Brazil and Peru, with participation from angels Scott Belsky (Behance), Tobi Lutke (Shopify), and Tim Schumacher (Ecosia), and follow-on from Saltwater Capital and Lowercase Capital. Pachama raised US$4.1m in January from Global Founders Capital, Social Capital, Lowercase Capital, and Saltwater Capital. Breakthrough Energy Ventures is a VC fund established by Bill Gates, Jack Ma, Jeff Bezos, John Doerr, and Vinod Khosla as part of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition. > #CVC Bimbo Ventures and Sweet Capital, the VC fund of the co-founders of Candy Crush, invested US$5m in Jüsto, a Mexican grocery delivery startup. Mountain Nazca and Foundation Capital led a US$12m follow-on investment in Jüsto in July. Jüsto grew its revenue by 65% month-over-month in the first half of this year, according to Weder. > #PROPTECH Global Founders Capital, Ribbit Capital, MAYA Capital, and Y Combinator invested US$3.3m in Alude, a Brazilian proptech streamlining the client management process for real estate brokers, with participation from Hugo Barra (Facebook), among other angels. Founder Alexandre Duburgas: “...we are now offering traditional brokers all the tools they need to do online rentals for free... the reason we want to empower [brokers] rather than recruit them into an end-to-end solution is that this is not a winner-takes-all market – the largest current players all have less than 1% of the market combined.†> Impact Ideas VC led a US$2.5m seed round in Xepelin, a Chilean account receivable-based lending platform for SMEs, with participation from Manutara Ventures, FJ Labs, and Cornershop Co-Founders Oskar Hjertonsson and Daniel Undurraga. > E3 Negocios, a Brazilian innovation consultancy, invested US$2m in a55, a Brazilian revenue-based lender focused on SMEs in Brazil and Mexico. > #DEBT SP Ventures, through its Brazil Venture Debt Fund, invested R$6m in debt financing in Ambar Tech, a Brazilian real estate developer providing digitization services for construction projects. In 2019, Igah Ventures (formerly e.Bricks Ventures) made a R$14m follow-on investment in Ambar Tech, after investing R$40m+ in the company. > Igah Ventures led a R$6m round in Dr. Jones, a Brazilian DTC brand for men’s beauty products, with participation from Norte Ventures and angels Bruno Nardon (Rappi) and Gabriel Benarros (Ingresse). Astella Investimentos led an undisclosed round in 2019. > #HEALTHTECH #DRONES CITES invested a total of US$1.75m in three Argentine early stage startups: Stradot, a maker of drones to lift and organize parked vehicles in outdoor parking lots; Clover, a biotech developing artificial heart valves; and Bionirs, a healthtech developing radiation-free scanners for breast cancer detection. > #AGTECH Capria Ventures invested US$1m in Agrofy, an Argentine marketplace for agricultural supplies, with follow-on from SP Ventures. SP Ventures led a US$23m Series B in 2019 and led a US$6m Series A alongside Syngenta, Bunge Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst in 2018. This represents Capria’s first direct co-investment in a Latin American startup. > #ADTECH KPTL (formerly A5 and Inseed Investimentos), through BNDES’ Criatec 3, invested R$5m in Alright, a Brazilian adtech marketplace connecting large advertisers with SMEs looking to monetize their online presence. > #CLEANTECH #CVC Z-Tech, AB InBev’s CVC fund, made an undisclosed investment in Lemon Energy, a Brazilian solar panel rental platform providing clean energy for bars and restaurants, with participation from Brazilian clean energy management company Capitale Energia. Canary and Big Bets invested R$1m in 2019. > #CVC Unipetro, a Brazilian fuel and gas reseller, invested R$1m in Ativa Resultados, a Brazilian startup incubator, to expand its fuel tank monitoring system. > #PROPTECH Wiggot, a Mexican transaction management platform for real estate agents, raised US$800k from undisclosed investors.
> #LEGALTECH KPTL invested R$3m in Preâmbulo Tech, a software development platform for law firms.
> #PROPTECH Bossa Nova Investimentos invested R$400k in Communy, a Brazilian residential rental management platform.
> #DEBT Fuse Capital made an undisclosed debt investment in Vexi, a Mexican credit card app for millennials.
> #CRYPTO Innogen Capital Ventures made an undisclosed investment in Koibanx, an Argentine blockchain-based fintech offering cash management and investment services for SMEs.
> #CRYPTO Baltimore-based VC Squadra Ventures and TreeCorp Investimentos made an undisclosed investment in Wibx, a Brazilian blockchain-based customer loyalty and rewards management platform.
> #CRIMETECH Propel Ventures made an undisclosed investment in Tierra, a Mexican risk and safety data assessment platform based on geolocation technologies. > #ANGEL ArkFund, US-based hedge fund 10X Fund, and Peruvian angel investor networks SC Angeles and Enlaces invested US$800k in Vozy, a Miami-based customer service management platform with operations in Mexico and Colombia.
> #AGTECH Anjos do Brasil and Poli Angels invested R$1m in Bebida na Porta, a Brazilian on-demand beverage delivery startup.
> VC investment in Latin American startups has quadrupled since 2016 to a record US$4.6b in 2019, according to LAVCA data. |
| > Magma Partners launched Brava, a new commitment to invest in at least 20 female-founded Latin American companies over the next three years.
Magma also appointed Claire DÃaz-Ortiz as Partner to lead the fund’s investments in the Southern Cone. #CHANGETHERATIO
> Angel Ventures reached a ~US$1.1m first close for its seed fund Carabela. The fund has a ~US$7m target and will commit an average of ~US$140k in seed and early-stage companies in ecommerce, fintech, edtech, proptech, and biotech. > Bossa Nova Investimentos launched a R$5m fund to invest in sports startups. Bossa Nova appointed Olympic medalist Thiago Pereira and marathon runner Italo Nogueira as advisors to the fund.
> #CRYPTO KPTL launched an investment vehicle focused on cryptocurrency derivatives trading.
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| > The Board of Directors of Linx approved Stone’s bid to acquire the company. Stone announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire Linx in August, at the time TOTVS had also issued an offer for a potential acquisition. The transaction is pending shareholder approval on November 17. Stone went public on the Nasdaq on October 25, 2018, raising US$1.5b in one of the top listings on the exchange in 2018. General Atlantic was an early backer of Linx and exited in 2014. |
| > Nubank launched operations in Colombia. The neobank launched its zero-commission credit card as its first product in the market. Catalina Breton, former CEO and Co-Founder of Colombian airline Wingo, has been appointed as Country Manager. > EBANX partnered with Amazon to enable direct purchases with Colombian pesos in the platform while leveraging local payment solutions. The partnership will streamline POS payments for consumers in Colombia by enabling cash payments as well as locally issued debit cards for goods purchased on Amazon. Amazon also partnered with online/offline payments platform Conekta and OXXO in 2017 to launch Amazon Cash in Mexico, a strategic partnership with corporate investor FEMSA Comercio, to allow Mexicans without a bank account or credit card to pay for online purchases at over 14,000 OXXO stores; in 2019 the partnership launched Amazon Cash to extend coverage even further. > Mexico-based small business lender Credijusto partnered with Uber Eats to grant ~US$56m in credit lines to partner restaurants and SMEs in Mexico.
> iFood partnered with Tembici to launch an electric bike initiative for delivery partners in Brazil. > Frontier Car Group, a Chilean car resale marketplace, partnered with OLX Group, a Netherlands-based network of ecommerce marketplaces, to launch OLX Autos. OLX Autos will launch operations in twelve countries, including Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. > Argentine microlending platform MONI launched operations in Colombia. BID Invest invested US$2m in 2018. > CEO Deborah Dana of Canasta Rosa, a Mexican marketplace for DIY and handmade goods, shares her view on the company’s recent growth, fundraising strategy, and plans to enter the microlending market. Canasta Rosa raised a US$3m Series A in 2019 led by Elevar Equity and participated in Google for Startups’ 2020 summer cohort. > Y Combinator published YC Startup Directory, a resource showcasing all companies affiliated with their accelerator program since 2005. YC Startup Directory enables users to filter for Latinx-founded startups. Key company insights by country of HQ: YC lists 37 Mexico-based startups, 16 Brazil-based startups, 14 Colombia-based startups, and seven Argentina-based startups. > Check out LAVCA’s 2020 directory of 126 Latin American startups with at least US$1m in VC funding, verified by LAVCA (as of end-2019), our Unicorn Leaderboard, and our Inaugural Survey of Latin American Startups. |
| > SIGN UP for a bi-weekly newsletter covering cross-border tech transactions and innovations with cross-border applications in a rapidly changing world. Geographies will include Latin America, Africa, India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and other emerging VC markets. The Oct. 8 issue included details on US$9b+ in tech transactions.
VIEW the archive of previous editions and sign up here.
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| > Mercado Libre CEO and Co-Founder Marcos Galperin shares his experience building the first unicorn in the region and his vision for payments arm Mercado Pago in a conversation with Dell and Endeavor.
> Uber announced the company has registered over 28 million trips in Latin America with users wearing masks since the C19 crisis began.
Drivers and users will now be required to take a selfie before initiating every trip to ensure compliance with company C19 guidelines. > Didi will launch operations in Buenos Aires tomorrow.
The platform already operates in six other countries in Latin America: Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama. > Google launched Google News Showcase, a journalism initiative to pay news publishers US$1b+ over the next three years to reproduce selections of their stories across its platforms.
This initiative builds upon Google News Initiative, Google’s US$300m pledge in 2018 to strengthen its partnerships with publishers. Google News Showcase will first launch in Brazil and Germany. > Falabella, the largest department store retailer in South America, announced it will consolidate all its subsidiary brands in a single digital platform.
Brands include Falabella Retail, Sodimac, Tottus, and Linio. > Americas Quarterly: Rio’s Beaches Are Proof: Bolsonaro Is Winning the Narrative on COVID-19.
> NYT on the Peruvian Amazon: The Amazon Was Sick. Now It’s Sicker.
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| > Atlantico, a new fund from Brazilian VC Canary, published its 2020 Latin America Digital Transformation Report.
Traditional capital from Brazilian family offices is expected to nearly double its allocation to venture capital by 2025, according to Altantico’s research. Atlantico also sheds light on three local IPOs expected to take place during Q4: Mosaico, enjoei, and Meliuz. Julio Vasconcellos of Atlantico: Latin America’s digital transformation is making up for lost time. > Rodrigo Baer of Redpoint eventures shares his views on the current investment landscape in Brazil during Startup Invest Week.
> Jamie Riggs of ChileGlobal Ventures shares his view on the current investing activity in the Chilean landscape.
> Mexican women investor group Mujeres Invirtiendo registered as a non-profit and launched a crowdfunding campaign to support their inclusion initiatives.
> #CVC Mauricio Matus of Masisa Lab, the CVC fund of Chilean wood furniture manufacturer Grupo Masisa, shares his view on the current challenges for large corporations to participate more actively in the development of the CVC landscape in the Chilean market. |
| PEOPLE & PROGRAMS > Congratulations to two new Brazilian startups joining TheVentureCity’s Growth Program: Condofy and PLIPAG.
> Congratulations to the Latin American startups selected to participate in the YC S20 batch: Todos Comemos, ChatPay, Henry, Oico, Jüsto, Conta Simples, PANADATA, Flat, Parrot Software, Mozper, and isibit.
> Congratulations to Jefa, a women-first challenger bank focused in Latin America, for being among the five finalist startups in TC Disrupt 2020 Battlefield.
> Congratulations to PackID, Real Valor, and N2B Nutrição Empresarial for being selected as finalists of ACE’s 2020 Startup Awards.
> Mindset Ventures appointed Alexandre Villela, Managing Director of Qualcomm Ventures, and Claudia Sender, former CEO of LATAM Airlines Brasil, as new advisors to the fund.
> Google appointed Paula Bellizia, Microsoft’s former Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Operations, as VP of Marketing for Latin America.
> OYO LATAM appointed Ralf Wenzel of SoftBank to its Board of Directors.
> ABVCAP and Apex Brasil are hosting ABVCAP Experience on October 20-29. Details here.
> Facebook and Baita launched Campo Digital, an accelerator program focused on agtech startups in Brazil. Applications close October 18.
> AC Ventures will host a discussion on the future of embedded fintech technologies, with Tayo Ovisu, Founder and CEO of PAGA, and Jonathan Whittle, Co-Founder and Partner of Quona Capital, on October 21. Registration is now open.
> Globant opened nominations for the Globant Awards, an award recognizing women leaders in the technology ecosystem. Categories include: Technology Executive, Game Changer, and Rising Star. Nominations can be submitted until November 4.
> ColCapital and Universidad EAFIT will host an educational program focused on the private capital markets from November 5 to February 10. Registration is now open.
> SAVE THE DATE for WeXchange 2020, hosted by IDB Lab on November 10-11. Details here.
> LAVCA CEO Ivonne Cuello will participate in the FT Global Boardroom Virtual Summit alongside Mercado Libre Founder Marcos Galperin in the panel "LatAm Tech in the Spotlight: Opportunities for Growth, Leapfrogging and Social Impact" on November 11-13. Register for free here.
> ACVC, ARCAP, and Uruguayan Promoción de Exportaciones e Inversiones will host the first Southern Cone Investment Forum on November 25 and 26.
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