> Brazilian lawyers Marlon Reis and Ronaldo Lemos, the instigator of Brazil’s Marco Civil, launched Mudamos, a civic participation app that lets you create campaigns with legally recognized signatures. Brazilian law requires 1.6 million signatures to propose legislative change on the federal level (300,000 in most cities, and 60,000 in most states). Mudamos got 300,000 downloads in its first week, and is built on blockchain technology. Ronaldo Lemos leads Rio’s Institutio de Sociedade e Tecnologia (ITS-Rio), which just received a R$1.5m prize from Google for its work on social impact.
> In April, Brazilian shipping platform Mandaê launched Freedom, an e-commerce logistics service that now accounts for 33% of all shipment volume, according to their newsletter. Mandaê investors include Valor Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, monashees+, and Kima Ventures.
> CBInsights’ list of top agtech startups includes four in Latin America: S4 (Syngenta Ventures, Cygnus Capital, NXTP Labs), BovControl (Redpoint e.ventures), Aegro (SP Ventures), and Strider (Qualcomm Ventures, monashees+). READ our interview with Strider CEO Luiz Tangari about the agtech opportunity in the region, and this roundup of recent agtech activity by SVB’s Jackie Hyland.
> Cisco and IBM have formed an unprecedented partnership to share threat intelligence in the wake of the global WannaCry ransomeware attacks last month. Cisco Security Group GM David Ulevitch addressed investors at LAVCA’s VC in the Bay program in April.
> #CHANGETHERATIO: Apple says they have created 1.5 million app-related jobs globally to date, and is releasing a free one-year curriculum on how to write apps for the iPhone in the hopes of attracting more women, black students, Latinx students, and rural students to app development.
> Financial Times: Trump’s visa crackdown spurs tech moves to Mexico. “Mexican IT services hit US$20b in 2016 and are set to outpace the growth of the sector in India, increasing 15 per cent year on year.”
> Former TechCrunch editor Eric Eldon makes the case for fixing cities with tech. Relevant read, as LatAm is the most urbanized region in the world, with 80% of the population living in cities.
> Legendary tech columnist Walt Mossberg writes his final column about the disappearing computer. “Tech was once always in your way. Soon, it will be almost invisible.”