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QUOTABLE

-- WebRadar CEO Adriano da Lima

LAVCA spoke with WebRadar co-founder and CEO Adriano da Rocha Lima 

about his R$40M (US$10M) investment from Qualcomm Ventures and DGF Investmentos, relationships with strategic investors, and expansion plans.

Read more from the interview here.

DEALS

> CargoX has received an undisclosed amount of investment from Valor Capital, Lumia Capital and Agility Logistics to disrupt the cargo shipment market in Brazil, alongside Uber co-founder Oscar Salazar and Hans Hickler, former CEO of DHL Express USA (also an investor in Mandaê). CargoX offers quotes to transport closed cargo through a network of 100,000 verified truck drivers at a 30% freight discount, seeking efficiencies through route optimization and bundling smaller shipments. They plan to secure R$100M (US$25m) in financing by the end of 2017.

 > Agtech startup Tbit has announced its first institutional funding, a R$4M (US$1M) Series A with Inseed Investimentos. Tbit offers grain and seed analysis technology to the four largest multinational agribusinesses with operations in Brazil, and has grown about 230% per year since entering the market in 2012, according to founder Igor Chalfoun. Chalfoun says Tbit’s GroundEye grain and seed analysis product is four times faster than the common testing means for corn and soybeans. Tbit will use the new capital to begin applying its products to biotech precision agriculture and livestock segments.

> Grocery shopping service Cornershop has raised a US$6.7M Series A from ALLVP, with Jackson Square Ventures, Accel and Endeavor Catalyst. Cornershop is operating in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and in Santiago and Valparaiso in Chile. This is Accel’s first investment in Mexico.

> Colombian startup LentesPlus has raised US$1M from InQlab and Stella Maris to consolidate online contact lens sales in Colombia, Mexico and Chile. In Brazil, Lema21 merged with eÓtica to offer prescription lenses last year.

> GuiaBolso, a personal financial management platform based in São Paulo, has raised a US$4M Series C with the IFC, Ribbit Capital, KaszeK Ventures and QED Investors. The IFC is also considering a US$5M investment in ComparaOnline, a Chilean insurance comparison site also backed by Ribbit and KaszeK.

> Brazilian ecommerce startup Trocafone has raised R$20M (US$5M) from Swiss investment bank Sallfort. Previous investors include Wayra, Grupo Telefônica, 500 Startups, Lumia Capital, Quasar Ventures and NXTP. Trocafone closed 2015 with R$40M (US$10M) in sales of 50K “semi-used” devices.

> Brazilian medical diagnostics firm Adavium has announced a US$21M Series C with CVF LLC and existing investors Venrock, Aberdare Ventures, and Arboretum Ventures. Adavium has also acquired Alka Tecnologia and Hemogram Industria e Comercio to become the largest Brazilian medical equipment and diagnostics company. Claudia Goulart, former GE Healthcare CEO for Latin America, has joined the company as COO and President of Diagnostics.

> Uber competitor Cabify has raised a US$120M Series C, led by Japanese web giant Rakuten, to continue expansion through Latin America.

EXIT HIGHLIGHTS

> NXTP and South Ventures have sold GuideCentral, a mobile and web platform for makers and DIY fans, to Wikihow. GuideCentral has raised US$1.5M since 2012.

 > EPG Partners has sold Nubox, a Chilean Saas accounting, payroll and billing software firm, to Riverwood Capital. They are planning to invest US$12M over the next five years in expansion and upgrades.

M&A

> Brazil-based iFood has acquired SpoonRocket, the on-demand food delivery startup that just shut down in the U.S. SpoonRocket says they were not able to cover variable costs through revenue, and cited a cooling VC climate as motivation for the shut-down. iFood, which has raised nearly US$62M in funding from Latin American commerce platform Movile and British take-out company Just Eat, has been on an acquisition tear in the last couple of years. SpoonRocket is the company’s 15th acquisition in two years.

> e.Bricks Digital, a holding company of Grupo RBS, has sold Brazilian auto advertising platform BuscaCarros to WebMotors.

> Tivit has acquired OneCloud as part of Tivit’s plan to invest R$46M (US$11M) this year building out its service offering. OneCloud launched at Startup Weekend Belo Horizonte in 2014.

> UOL Diveo has acquired Dualtec, a cloud broker focused on OpenStack implementations, that received funding in 2011 from Astella Investimentos.

> MercadoLibre has officially launched operations in Chile after acquiring Portal Inmobiliario in 2014, investing $2M to open the Centro de Desarrollo Tecnológico in Santiago.

NEW FUNDS

> The government of Mexico City (through Sedec) and Nacional Financiera (Nafinsa) have launched a new angel fund to support projects coming out of public universities. Sedec and Nafinsa will each contribute 25% of the funding for these projects, while the remaining 50% will come from VC funds.

> CFN has announced a US$48M government-backed VC fund, Ecuador’s first.

> The Peruvian government has announced plans to support the creation/operation of VC funds, business incubators/accelerators, and angel networks.

NUMBERS

> Why Latin American economies are turning to bitcoin (via TechCrunch):

Last year, adoption of the digital currency broke records in Latin America. Payment processor BitPay reported a 510 percent gain in merchant transactions in mid-2015, but the most notable growth took place toward the end of last year. Latin American merchant transactions finished the year having grown by a staggering 1,747 percent from the beginning of 2015. Other key figures from Brazil’s bitcoin ecosystem showed bitcoin exchange trades surging by 322 percent and bitcoin wallet adoption growing 461.4 percent. Exchange trading in Mexico grew by 600 percent in 2015.

In Latin America, the country most known for bitcoin is Argentina. And while Argentina has had the most bitcoin enthusiasts per capita, that may be starting to change. Brazilians and Venezuelans also have good reasons to adopt bitcoin — bitcoin holders in 2015 enjoyed earnings during 2015 that performed more than 400 percent better than the Venezuelan Bolivar, more than 92 percent over the Brazilian Real, more than 65 percent over the Mexican Peso and more than 41 percent over the Argentine Peso.

PEOPLE & PROGRAMS

> INADEM’s next call for VC and impact funds opens in April.

> Alianza del Pacifico is looking for a new general manager for its Fondo de Capital Emprendedor. Backed by BID and FOMIN, the fund expects to invest $40-$100M in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

> Universidad de la Frontera accelerator IncubatecUFRO is hosting nine foreign funds to Chile in April to build bridges with the Chilean tech ecosystem and introduce a dozen biotech and renewable energy projects.

> Investors and entrepreneurs in Mexico looked to bridge gaps in deal-making alignment at the AMEXCAP conference this April, addressing expectations around investing in unicorns and untested business models and the role of INADEM in funding new funds.

FUTBOL

> Silicon Valley and Brazil entrepreneurs are launching the San Francisco Deltas, a professional soccer team. Led by Colombian Brian Andrés Helmick, the investor group includes individuals from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Felicis and Precursor.

INTL POV

> U.S. venture firms have closed on more capital commitments in Q1 2016 than they have in any quarter since Q2 2006, according to data from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Thomson Reuters: U.S. firms raised $12B for 57 funds in Q1 2016, compared to Q2 2006 when firms raised $14.3B for 79 funds.

> Aaron Harris at Y Combinator talks about bad terms, and how entrepreneurs can avoid them.

> Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures talks about losing money: “I remember back in the mid 90s, I used to say with some pride that I had not lost money on any of my VC investments. Then one day, someone told me “then you are not taking enough risk.”

> Jo Tengo at Kepha Partners reviews the four most important numbers in a board deck.

> Mike Harden at Artis Ventures looks back at leading the YouTube Series B in 2006 in an excellent reminder at how fast the web is changing.

The LatAm Venture Bulletin is a news project of the Latin American Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.  

Have news we should include? Please email news@lavca.org.

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