> 🦄 Brazilian proptech QuintoAndar reached unicorn status with a US$250m Series D investment from SoftBank, with participation from Dragoneer Investment Group, and follow-on from KaszeK Ventures and General Atlantic.
- GA led the R$250m Series C in 2018. Previous investors include QED Investors and Ruane Cunniff.
- QuintoAndar is 1000+ employees strong and operates in 25 cities in Brazil, signing 4,500+ rental contracts monthly.
- Read LAVCA’s interview with Co-Founder and CTO Andre Penha.
- 🦄 View LAVCA’s Unicorn Leaderboard for the latest list of LatAm unicorns.
> Credijusto, a fintech startup that provides affordable financing to SMEs in Mexico, raised US$42m from Goldman Sachs and Point72 Ventures, with participation from Thomvest Ventures, Wolfson Group, Third Lake Capital and Argo Ventures, and follow-on from Kaszek Ventures, QED Investors, Broadhaven Capital Partners, John J. Mack and Supernode Ventures.
- Goldman invested via its Principal Strategic Investments group. Goldman also made a US$100m debt investment in Credijusto earlier this year to expand Credijusto’s credit operations.
- Other Credijusto investors include: Elevar Equity, Victory Park Capital, City Hall Capital, Fourth Green Capital, Uprising Venture Fund, Flatiron Investors, M4Fund, and others.
- Credijusto CEO David Portiz will be speaking at LAVCA’s Venture Investors Annual Meeting on 9/26. Join us.
> #DEBT Mexican lending platform Konfio raised a US$100m debt round from Goldman Sachs.
- In 2018, Vostok Emerging Finance led a US$25m Series C investment in Konfio, with follow-on from existing investors Jaguar Ventures, KaszeK Ventures, Quona Capital, QED Investors and the IFC, among others. The IFC led Konfio’s US$10m Series B in 2017.
- CEO David Arana told Bloomberg the investment will help Konfio, which provides unsecured working capital to small and midsize companies, lend about US$250m in the next 12 months.
- Konfio also recently partnered with PayPal.
> The IFC led a R$70m investment in Revelo, a Brazil-based job matching platform, with follow-on from Valor Capital, Dalus Capital, FJLabs and corporate investor Seek.
> Urbvan, a transport app providing van-sharing rides along pre-established routes in Mexico City and Monterrey, raised a US$9m round from KaszeK Ventures and Angel Ventures Mexico, with participation from Liil Ventures and follow-on from DILA Capital.
- Founded in 2017 by co-CEOs Joao Albino and Renato Picard, Urbvan raised MXN$16m from DILA Capital and Mountain Nazca, and also received a grant from MassChallenge Mexico in 2017.
- Urbvan counts over 15,000 monthly users and a fleet of 180 vans.
> Grupo Pegasus invested US$10m in Colombian cosmetics retailer Blush-Bar.
- Founded in 2015 by Claudia Lloreda, Blush-Bar is one of the leading female-led startups in the country and was awarded the first Endeavor Women with Impact Prize in 2017.
> minu, a payroll fintech providing Mexican employees digital access to their earned wages, raised a US$6.5m seed round from QED Investors, Village Global, Next Billion Ventures, and Mountain Nazca Mexico. This is minu’s first institutional capital.
> ALLVP led a US$4.5m pre-seed round in Flat, a Mexican proptech employing the iBuyer model, with participation from Liquid 2 Ventures, Next Billion Ventures, Picus Capital, and angel investors.
- Co-founders Victor Noguera and Bernardo Cordero met at UC Berkeley.
- Bernardo Cordero will be speaking at LAVCA’s Venture Investors Annual Meeting on 9/26. Join us.
> Foundation Capital led an undisclosed pre-seed investment in Jüsto, a Mexico-based grocery delivery startup, with participation from Quiet Capital, Vas Ventures, 500 Startups, and others. Jüsto is founded by Cabify’s former Global President, Ricardo Weder.
- Foundation Capital just raised a US$350m Fund 9.
> #CVC InovaBra Ventures led a R$15m investment in Direct One, a Brazilian multichannel customer communications platform founded by Fernando Wosniak Steler.
> #IMPACT Denda, a Chilean aggregator of sustainable consumer goods, raised US$1m in seed financing from SUDAMERIK, Dadneo, and angel investors. Venda was accelerated at Chile’s ENGIE Factory.
> ONEVC made undisclosed seed investments in Rocket.Chat and Yuca.
> Nilo Ventures made an undisclosed seed investment in Covela, a digital insurance broker for SMEs in Latin America that just finished YC (S2019 cohort).
- This is Nilo’s second investment after Keynua.
> #DEBT Mutuo Financiera, a Mexican vehicle fleet leasing company focused on clean energy passenger transportation, raised US$100m in debt financing from Crayhill Capital Management to expand its fleet.
> Lara Lemann and Monica Saggioro of MAYA Capital have made 12 investments since launching last year, including Avocado, EmCasa, Gupy, Kovi, LiveHere, NotCo, Nuvocargo and Truora.