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DEALS

> 🦄 #UNICORN Sapphire Ventures led a US$103m Series E investment in Auth0, an identity verification solution founded by Eugenio Pace and Matías Woloski, with participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, K9 Ventures, Meritech Capital, Telstra Ventures, and World Innovation Lab, at a reported valuation of US$1b.

• Sapphire led the US$55m Series D in 2018. Cygnus Capital and NXTP Labs are previous investors.

> monashees led a US$10.5m seed investment in Kovi, a provider of rental cars for on-demand drivers in Latin America, with participation from MAYA Capital and ONEVC. Accel partner Kevin Efrusy also invested. Co-founders Adhemar Milani Neto (CEO) and Joao Costa (CTO) are alums of rideshare 99.

> #HRTECH KaszeK Ventures, Redpoint eventures, and QED Investors made a R$16m Series A investment in Xerpa, a Brazilian human resource management platform. Xerpa clients include Gympass and Nubank.

> Andreessen Horowitz made a US$1.6m investment in Meitre, an Uruguayan restaurant management platform. Meitre participated in Y Combinator in Winter 2018 and is founded by Juan and Luis Caviglia.

> Signia Venture Partners led a US$2.5m seed round in Colombia’s Picap to expand its 🏍️ mototaxi mobility platform throughout Latin America. Joining Signia in the Picap round were Peter Livingston with Unpopular Ventures, Another Company Limited, Fahim Saleh of Adventure Capital, and other angel investors.

> DILA Capital and Angel Ventures Peru made an undisclosed seed investment in Emptor, a Mexican identity services platform for on-demand companies.

> Criatec 2 made a R$2.5m investment in DataRisk, a Brazilian online predictive modeling platform focused on credit, collection, and fraud serving mainly financial institutions.

> #HRTECH Superjobs Ventures led a R$1m investment in Matchbox Brasil, a recruitment marketing platform.

> #HRTECH DILA Capital made an undisclosed seed investment in Alana Jobs, a Mexican HR tech platform for the hospitality industry, with participation from additional investors via crowdfunding platform ArkAngeles. This is Alana’s first institutional capital.

> #CVC CEMEX Ventures made an undisclosed investment in LINKX, a Brazilian delivery management platform for construction goods.

> Mexican insurance startup Mango Life raised US$300k from angel investor Manuel Rivero Zambrano, CEO of Banregio.

> #AGTECH Dev Labs made a US$100k seed investment in Altum Lab, a Chilean fish feed optimization platform founded by Madeleine Valderrama.

> #CVC Amazon led a US$575m investment in London-based food delivery platform Deliveroo.

> #CVC #RENEWABLES CEMEX Ventures made an undisclosed investment in Swiss startup Energy Vault, an energy storage technology that enables power to be delivered for less than the cost of fossil fuels.

EXITS

> DILA Capital and Mountain Nazca Mexico exited Creze, a Mexican financial services startup for small businesses, through a sale to Polygon Fintech, a financial group targeting unbanked consumers. This transaction represents DILA’s first exit from Fund III and Mountain Nazca’s third exit from Fund I.

M&A

>  Brazil’s Natura Cosmeticos acquired Avon Products in an all-stock deal at a reported US$2b valuation.

>  Ecommerce app Zoom acquired Buscapé for an undisclosed amount.

🔎 ENTREPRENEUR SPOTLIGHT / MUY TECH

STARTUPS

> Congrats to HandTalk, a real-time translation platform for Brazilian sign language, and one of 20 global winners of the Google AI Impact Challenge. HandTalk will receive a US$750k grant from Google.org as well as cloud services.

> Chilean foodtech NotCo launched its flagship NotMayo in Brazil through an exclusive distribution deal with Pão de Açúcar.

> Reuters: Rappi will triple its presence in Brazil after the SoftBank deal. Bloomberg reports a US$3.5b valuation.

> iFood is experimenting with scooter delivery via a partnership with Scoo.

> LiftIt is hiring a COO based in Bogotá. Details/apply here.

> Spanish delivery giant Glovo is closing its Brazil and Chile operations, citing an “extremely competitive market.”

> Joining YC’s latest cohort:

• Argentine conversational platform Emi Labs
• Frubana, a Colombian farm-to-restaurant platform founded by Rappi alum Fabián Gómez

> Check out LAVCA’s list of 258 Latin American startups with at least US$1m in VC funding, verified by LAVCA, and our Inaugural Survey of Latin American Startups.

> VC investment in Latin American startups has quadrupled since 2016 to a record US$2b in 2018, according to LAVCA data. Access LAVCA’s Annual Review of Tech Investment in Latin America for the details.

TECH POLICY

> Reuters: Uber, Didi slam Mexico City's new rules on ride-hailing, including cash ban.

> El Financiero: DiDi declina (por ahora) entrar al programa de recaudación de Hacienda.

NEWS

> Grupo ZAP, which merged with real estate marketplace VivaReal last year, is introducing the instant home buyer model in Brazil, where it will purchase, renovate, and re-list residential properties for sale.

• Zillow and Open Door are doing this in the US.
• Grupo ZAP plans to double its workforce for the new effort.

> Globant CEO and co-founder Martín Migoya talks with Latin Trade about running the business as a unicorn (subscription). Globant is a member of the LatAm Tech Growth Coalition.

> Crunchbase News speaks with QuintoAndar, Riverwood Capital, and Lumia Capital in Venture Funding In Brazil Soars To $1.3B In 2018.

> Estadão: Após investirem R$5b em 2018, fundos ampliam busca por startups no Brasil.

> Terra: Conheça os principais fundos que investem nas startups brasileiras.

> La Republica says 500 Startups has backed 11 Colombian companies to date.

> El Economista: ¿Qué son los fondos de capital privado?

> Brazil Journal looks at the Brazilians behind a fund that is investing in cannabis.

> VentureBeat: 1,000 female VCs are building the world’s largest self-reported directory. Check it out.

• Related: Check out LAVCA’s Directory of Top Women & Emerging Women Investing in Latin American VC/Tech.

> Thanks to the record number of investors and entrepreneurs who joined us for Encontro Anual Brasil on May 15 in São Paulo. Special thanks to Google for hosting the meeting, Microsoft for hosting the LAVCA member dinner at Trattoria Fasano; our partners SVB, Telefonica Open Innovation/Wayra, AWS, Facebook, and ABVCAP, and the following LAVCA member firms who attended:

Actis
Astella Investimentos
Bossa Nova Investimentos
Canary
CRP
DGF Investimentos
eBricks Ventures
IDB Lab
Indicator Capital
KaszeK Ventures
Mercado Libre
monashees
Movile
NXTP Labs
Redpoint eventures
Riverwood Capital
The Yield Lab LatAm
Valor Capital
Wayra Brasil

> Polymath Ventures and Finnovista are hosting an event with Huawei and Mobike on May 22 in CDMX on the growing Chinese digital influence in LatAm. Details here.

> AWS partnered with Tec de Monterrey to support 500+ Mexican startups with up to US$10K in AWS credits.

> Investors from MAYA Capital, Innova Capital, Positive Ventures, Wayra Brasil, Google, and others are offering free mentoring for female entrepreneurs through Female Force LATAM. XX entrepreneurs, sign up here for free mentoring and spread the word. #CHANGETHERATIO

> Applications are open for 500 Startups’ 4-month acceleration program in Mexico City. Apply here for US$60k in funding.

> Village Capital offers US$50k in equity-free grants for participants in its fintech acceleration program. Fintech startups across the region (including Brazil) can apply here by May 17.

> Glocal’s Agrifoodtech accelerator is accepting applications. Apply by May 31.

> VTEX Day is May 30-31 in São Paulo, with a keynote from Barack Obama on May 30. Details here.

> MIT is hosting the Inclusive Innovation Challenge in LatAm to award entrepreneurs using tech to drive economic opportunity for workers. Apply here.

> CAP Minería and Fundación Chile are looking for mining tech startups. Apply by June 9.

> Scotiabank joins Visa, IGNIA and others as a corporate partner of Startupbootcamp Fintech. Apply for the acceleration program in Mexico City by June 20.

> LatinSF is accepting applications to join the Latin American Innovation Tour, Sept 9-13 in Colombia, Chile, and Argentina. Details here.

INVESTOR POV

> #PE Vista Equity Partners co-founder Robert Smith made a majorly philanthropic move at the Morehouse College graduation in Atlanta when he pledged up to US$40m to pay off the debt of every graduating member of the class of 2019. 📺 Watch the announcement.

> Softbank's Shu Nyatta to Reuters: SoftBank executive sees major Mexican consumer firms as potential partners.

> #IMPACT FT: Impact investing must resolve its identity crisis:

To fulfill its promise, impact investing must be defined by two characteristics: the products and services must have a direct and verifiable impact on the lives of the poor, and the companies must provide risk-adjusted market returns. Meeting both criteria is hard.

> Nathan Lustig of Magma Partners goes into the history behind the Movile team.

> Thiago Paiva of Liquia Digital Assets shares a round-up of recent fintech partnerships.

CRYPTO

> MIT Technology Review: The cryptocurrency startups trying to save Argentina from itself.

> Jalak Jobanputra of Future\Perfect Ventures on NYC Blockchain Week:

AWS announced the expansion of its Blockchain as a Service offering. Microsoft announced the first decentralized identity infrastructure implementation by a major tech company built directly on the bitcoin
blockchain (most have built on top of ethereum or private blockchains).

The LatAm Venture Bulletin is the VC/tech newsletter and content platform of
The Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America.

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