> 🦄 Andreessen Horowitz and Vulcan Capital led a US$175m Series C in Brazilian proptech Loft, with participation from Jaguar Ventures, and follow-on from monashees, Valor Capital, Fifth Wall Ventures, QED Investors, and Thrive Capital, at a reported valuation of US$1b. This is the first known investment of Vulcan, the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, in Latin America. Jaguar is Loft’s first investor that is not US- or Brazil-based.
- Loft’s last disclosed round was a US$70m Series B led by Fifth Wall Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from QED Investors, Valor, Canary, and others at a reported ~US$370m valuation. Loft raised a US$18m Series A in 2018.
- Last month, Loft announced a R$216m Fundo de Investimento Imobiliário (FII) fund to finance the purchase of ~1,200 properties over the next two years.
- READ LAVCA's interview with Co-CEO Mate Pencz.
🦄📝 Unicorn Leaderboard update: View LAVCA’s Unicorn Leaderboard for an updated list of known LatAm tech unicorns.
> #DEBT Colombian fintech Finsocial raised US$125m in debt financing from Morgan Stanley to expand its lending capacity.
> #CVC Tencent and Fondo Pitanga made a follow-on US$50m investment in Argentine spacetech Satellogic, with participation from IDB Lab. Tencent and Pitanga led a US$27m Series B in 2017.
- Previous investors include monashees, Valor Capital, NXTP Labs, Cygnus, CrunchFund, Starlight Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, and others.
- In 2019, Satellogic announced expansion to Europe and partnered with China Great Wall Industry Corp to launch micro-satellites aboard Chinese space rockets.
> #AGTECH SP Ventures led a US$23m Series B in Agrofy, an Argentine marketplace for agricultural supplies, with participation from Fall Line Capital, ACRE Capital, and #CVC Brasil Agro, and follow-on from Cygnus Capital. Syngenta Ventures, Bunge Ventures, Cygnus Capital, NXTP Labs, #CVC Cresud, and Endeavor Catalyst invested previously.
- This is the largest known agtech round in the region to date, according to LAVCA Industry Data. Capital will be used to expand in Brazil and Mexico, and on product development.
- Agrofy co-founder and President Alejandro Larosa shares: "Agrofy has a presence in 9 countries in LatAm, with 40% of the business located in Brazil, giving us access to thousands of farmers, with over 200k products listed in 17 categories and more than 10k merchants with their own digital store in the platform.”
> 777 Partners led a US$10m Series A in Fanatiz, a Miami-based sports streaming platform founded in Chile, and with presence in major LatAm markets. Magma Partners invested in 2018.
> Mexican fintech Resuelve Tu Deuda raised MX$93m (~US$5m) from DILA Capital and an additional MX$360m in debt financing from Alloy Merchant Finance. Resuelve Tu Deuda has been operating for over a decade in Mexico and has presence in Colombia, Argentina, and Spain.
> #CVC banco BV (formerly Banco Vorantim) led a R$25m investment in Olivia, a California-based personal finance app, to fund expansion into Brazil. BR Startups, managed by MSW Capital, followed on in the round. XP Investimentos also made an undisclosed investment in Olivia in 2019. Olivia was founded by Brazilians Cristiano Oliveira and Lucas Moraes.
> Astella Investimentos led a R$20m investment in Kenoby, a Brazilian SaaS platform for employee recruitment.
> ABseed and Order invested R$10m in Leads2b, a Brazilian client prospecting SaaS platform. Grupo Bonin invested previously.
> #BIOTECH Uruguay-based biotech Eolo Pharma raised a US$2.7m Series A from CITES and a group of international investors to fund preclinical trials for an obesity treatment. Eolo Pharma emerged in 2017 from a collaboration of scientists at Institut Pasteur de Montevideo and la Universidad de la República, Uruguay, and is run by biotech engineer Pia Garat.
> #PE Real estate credit marketplace Melhortaxa raised ~R$4.5m from the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs at a reported valuation of R$100m. This is Goldman’s third investment in Melhortaxa through Holding Finizy, which controls Meilleurtaux.com in France.
> Cedro Capital led a R$4.5m investment in Brazilian fintech Nucont, with participation from FC Capital and others.
> DILA Capital led an undisclosed investment in Someone Somewhere, a marketplace for Mexican artisanal goods, with participation from PSM, GBM Ventures, Soldiers Field Angels, Unreasonable Capila, and Kalei Ventures.
> #IMPACT FIS (Fondo de Inversión Social) and unnamed Chilean family offices made an undisclosed investment in Doble Impacto, a Chilean crowdlending platform, in December 2019.
> DUX Capital led a follow-on investment in Atexto, a Mexican developer of chatbot technology for customer service applications, with participation from Redwood Ventures, Avalancha Ventures MC Capital, and others.
> DUX Capital made a R$50k seed investment in Qwip, a Mexican mobile mapping app for public transportation.
> Lightcone Investments, Genesis Capital Ventures, and KFVC participated in an undisclosed bridge round in EmpleosTI, a Mexico-based tech jobs platform.
> Redwood Ventures led an undisclosed seed investment in Genius Foods, a Mexican foodtech focused on extending the shelf life of food products.
> #PE #CVC PE firm Kinea and Grupo A, a provider of educational materials, acquired a 51% stake in Saber em Rede, an edtech marketplace that connects students with grad school vacancies via independent agents.
- Valor reports that a decline in graduate student matriculation in private schools in Brazil has fueled the rise of independent agents responsible for filling empty spots for a commission on the student’s first semester of school.
> #CVC Mindsight, a Brazilian data analytics platform for the human resources industry, raised an undisclosed investment from Brazilian software company Senior.
> #CVC Latinia’s direct investments in 2019 include Prometeo, Facturedo,
Flink, Prestanomico, Dapp, Belvo, UALET, and Tu Identidad.