> General Atlantic led a US$300m Series C in Neon Pagamentos, with participation from BlackRock, Vulcan Capital, PayPal Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, and BBVA, and follow-on from monashees and Flourish Ventures.
- Neon Pagamentos raised a R$400m Series B led by General Atlantic and Banco Votorantim in 2019, and a US$22m Series A led by monashees, Quona Capital, and Propel Venture Partners in 2018, setting a record for the largest Series A investment in Brazil at the time.
- This is PayPal Ventures' first known investment in a Latin American startup; in 2019, PayPal made a US$750m strategic investment in Mercado Libre through a common stock investment.
> #PE #M&A L Catterton invested US$150m in a private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction in Argentine travel group Despegar.
- Investment proceeds will be used to finance opportunistic M&A transactions, according to Despegar CEO Damian Scokin.
- Despegar also announced the acquisition of an 84% stake in IFC-backed Koin, a Brazilian online payment platform enabling installment payments, for US$20m. Koin raised R$15m from the IFC in 2018.
> #M&A Brazilian credit card processing firm PagSeguro announced it will acquire the Brazilian operations of German payments processor Wirecard, subject to regulatory approval.
> Insight Partners led a US$118m Series B in MURAL, a US-based visual collaboration software enterprise platform with operations in Argentina, with participation from Tiger Global, Slack Fund, and World Innovation Lab, and follow-on from Gradient Ventures. MURAL is co-founded by Argentine Mariano Suárez-Battan.
- Radian Capital and Gradient Ventures led a US$23m Series A in MURAL earlier this year.
- MURAL has tripled its annual recurring revenue and added “over a million monthly active users” in 2020, according to TechCrunch.
> #PROPTECH Pontte, a Brazilian lending platform providing secured loans for real estate developments, raised R$160m from undisclosed investors.
- An Asian sovereign wealth fund led the investment, according to Valor.
- Pontte previously raised an undisclosed amount from Maua Capital, the asset manager of Luiz Fernando Figueiredo, a former director of the Brazilian Central Bank.
> #DEBT Swiss impact fund Symbiotics provided US$20m in debt financing to Finsocial, a Colombian consumer lending platform for teachers and pensioners.
- Finsocial also received access to a US$11m credit facility from Bancoldex earlier this year as part of Atlántico Responde, an initiative from the Colombian government to support SMEs during the C19 crisis. Finsocial raised US$125m in debt financing from Morgan Stanley in 2019.
> B Capital Group led a US$15m Series B in Yalochat, a Mexican customer service management platform that runs on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, with follow-on from Sierra Ventures. Sierra Ventures led a US$10m Series A in Yalochat in 2019.
- This is B Capital Group’s inaugural investment in Latin America, per LAVCA Research.
- Yalochat will use the newly raised funds to consolidate its position in Latin America and continue its expansion through India and Southeast Asia.
- Yalochat on their response to C19: “We asked ourselves how we could help the communities we are part of, and donated our technology to the governments of Mexico and Colombia, so they could handle the spike in demand for healthcare by advising and even providing COVID diagnosing to their citizens in an easier, faster, safer way through WhatsApp.”
> Gradient Ventures led a US$14m Series A in Fondeadora, a Mexican open banking platform, with participation from Fintech Collective, Sound Ventures, and Y Combinator, and follow-on from IGNIA Partners.
- IGNIA Partners, LW Investment Management, and angels made a US$2.5m investment in Fondeadora in 2019.
> Felicis Ventures led a US$12m Series A in Origin, a US-based financial advisor platform for company employees co-founded by João de Paula, former founder of Brazilian e-commerce platform Glio.
- In Latin America, Felicis previously invested in Mexican solar startup BRIGHT and Brazilian edtech startup eduK.
> #DEBT Accial Capital invested US$10m in debt financing in Aflore, a Colombian lending platform focused on microentrepreneurs and the underbanked.
- Aflore has recruited more than 250,000 informal advisors to their network in Colombia and has reduced its credit risk by ~30% compared to traditional microfinance institutions, according to Aflore’s CEO Ana Barrera.
- Barrera on Aflore during the current C19 crisis: “[Our clients] have seen their income reduced and so our collections team has moved from strictly reminding people of doing their payments, to engaging in a more consultative approach to help them understand the impact of the crisis and offer potential solutions.”
- LAVCA first interviewed Barrera when the company raised its Series A led by Fiinlab in 2017.
> #PROPTECH NY-based Inspired Capital led a US$10m Series A in Habi, a Colombian proptech employing the iBuyer model for middle-class residential real estate, with participation from 8VC, Clocktower, and Vine Ventures, and follow-on from Homebrew and Zigg Capital.
- Tiger Global led a US$5.5m seed investment in Habi in 2019.
> Redpoint eventures led a US$5m round in CyberLabs, a Brazilian computer vision and voice recognition technology developer founded by Movile Co-Founder Marcelo Sales.
- Sales shared during the 2020 BayBrazil Conference: “It’s quite hard to create a machine that can understand any type of Portuguese. You need to train the machine with the entire spectrum of different accents… it's definitely a big challenge for Brazil, and none of the big global tech players have taken it on yet.”
> 100 Open Startups, a Brazilian open innovation platform connecting corporates and early stage startups, raised R$10m from DOMO Invest and others.
> Astella Investimentos led a US$1.6m round in Birdie, a Brazilian data analytics and market research platform for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands.
- Samsung invested R$200k in Birdie in 2019 as part of its Creative Startups acceleration program.
- Co-Founder Patricia Osorio shares: “Although [Fortune 1000 companies] already have several tools that capture consumer data, they still struggle with connecting these sources and organizing all that data into aspects and insights relevant to their businesses. C19 has increased their need to capture “the voice” of the consumer in order to understand their needs and expectations in a new context.”
> ABseed invested R$4m in Asksuite, a Brazilian chatbot developer for customer service management for the hospitality industry.
> #GOVTECH US-based VC fund Good Growth Capital led a US$1.2m seed round in Irys, a Mexican platform for civic engagement with local governments, with participation from Arcadis, Techstars Ventures, and City Rise Ventures.
> #FOODTECH Chilean VC fund Endurance Investments and NOA Capital invested US$1m in The Live Green Co., a Chilean foodtech developing plant-based alternatives to replace animal-based products.
> Canary led a R$1.8m investment in Jestor, a Brazilian inventory and finance management platform for SMEs.
> Angel Ventures and Dadneo’s Vulcano led a US$390k round in Slik, an Argentine employee engagement SaaS platform.
- Slik participated in 500 Startups LatAm batch 10 in 2019 and received US$60k in funding.
- Co-Founder and CEO Javier Brignone shares: “The old way of running long [employee] surveys is over. Our research shows that after the fifth question, the quality of the response begins to decline.”
> TM3 Capital invested R$1.5m in Gofind, a Brazilian geolocation platform for product discovery and price comparison, with follow-on from Invisto.
- Invisto (formerly FIR Capital and Bzplan) invested R$2m in Gofind in 2018. Bzplan and FIR Capital merged operations to create Invisto in July 2020.
> Proeza Ventures, Liil Ventures, and Capital Invent made an undisclosed investment in Parkimóvil, a Mexican payments and monitoring platform for urban transportation systems and parking spaces.
- CFO Herberto Rodríguez shares: “Touchless technology is definitely the new normal and we will see its proliferation… Mobility in a social sense, should be offered as a common good to support wellbeing.”
> #CVC Randon Ventures, the CVC arm of Brazilian railroad equipment manufacturer Empresas Randon, made an undisclosed investment in Reboque.me, a Brazilian on-demand vehicle assistance service platform for drivers.
> A group of Colombian investors invested US$130k in Finco.co, a Colombian proptech providing market intelligence to real estate agents.
> #ANGEL Investidores.vc and Gavea Angels made an undisclosed investment in Congresse.me, a Brazilian platform for online conferences.
> #CRYPTO Xcapit, an Argentine automated investment platform for cryptocurrencies, raised US$450k from undisclosed investors.
> VC investment in Latin American startups has quadrupled since 2016 to a record US$4.6b in 2019, according to LAVCA data.