> Venture investments in Latin America continue to climb, despite the economic uncertainty in Brazil, the region’s leading venture market. VC transactions in Latin America reached US$218m in 1H2016, according to LAVCA’s 2016 Mid-Year Data & Analysis. (Following a banner year for venture investments in the region in 2015, with US$594m deployed over 182 deals.)

A few investment trends we are following:

• Mexico led the region in terms of the number of VC deals for the first time since LAVCA began collecting data in 2008, with 47 transactions (versus 11 in 1H2015).
• Top Silicon Valley firms are returning to the region for LatAm investments.
• Fintech continues to dominate as the leading sector for venture, representing 40% of IT investments (in dollars terms) in 1H2016. (The sector was 29% of IT investments in 2015.) 
• Agtech is starting to heat up with big investments from Monsanto, Qualcomm, and Basf. 

Read our Investment Trend Watch for more VC analysis. Access the press release for additional 1H2016 PE/VC data. Members can access the Mid-Year 2016 VC Analysis report and Excel by using their login. Non members can purchase the report for US$395.

> ALLVP led a MX$100m Series B in dental clinic network Dentalia.

> Beaumonte Investments led an undisclosed Series B-1 in car sharing service Carrot. Previous backers include ALLVP, Mexico Ventures and Mexican family office Auria Capital.

> Play Intellectual Capital led a R$3m investment in Stilingue, a software platform applying AI to social media analysis.

> Boletia, an online events and ticket sales platform based in Mexico, received a MX$20m investment round led by LIV Capital with the participation of DILA Capital.

> Mexican furniture and home décor marketplace, Alameda, received an investment led by DILA Capital for an undisclosed amount.

> Glassdoor acquired LoveMondays, a workplace review site in São Paulo, to expand into Latin America. Parabéns Luciana Caletti and team. LoveMondays was accelerated at ACE in 2013 and received an undisclosed seed investment from KaszeK in 2015.

> SEEK acquired the Mexican operation of EmpleoListo / Assured Labor. Capital Indigo invested previously. 

M&A

> Locaweb acquired corporate ecommerce platform Fbits for an undisclosed amount.

PEOPLE & PROGRAMS

> Connect with leading global and LatAm VCs and entrepreneurs at the LAVCA Venture Investors NY Summit at the Tribeca Rooftop in NY on September 29. The program features a Special Breakfast: Argentina with Mariano Mayer, Secretary of Entrepreneurship and SMEs for the Government of Argentina and Tomi Pierucci, Co-Founder of Bluesmart. Access the full agenda.

> Congrats to Daniel Treviño for winning the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon. Treviño is co-founder and CTO at fenestra, a smart home ventilation startup, and is a senior software engineer at Neusoft.

> Applications are now open for the Google Developers Launchpad Accelerator, Class 3. Entrepreneurs can apply here before October 24. 

> Access the newly published LAVCA Accelerator Directory, including verified accelerators based in Latin America or those accelerators with specific programs dedicated to the region, as of September 2016.

NEWS

> João Ricardo and José Eduardo Mendes are back in charge at Hotel Urbano after acquiring the 51% stake that belonged to Insight Venture Partners, Tiger Global and Priceline. The brothers are eyeing a new capital injection in the next three months.

> Ronaldo Lemos, the instigator of Brazil’s landmark Marco Civil registration, calls Argentina’s new Ley del Emprendedor proposals envy-inspiring for the rest of the region.

> Leo Branco at Exame dives into the agtech startups thriving in the interior of São Paulo. 

> In Latin America, capital committed by impact-investment funds increased to roughly US$2b by the end of 2013, from US$160m in 2008, representing a 12-fold growth in just five years. Access The Impact Investing Landscape in Latin America, a report produced by LAVCA, ANDE and LGT Impact Ventures.

> Following the recent WSJ story on Andreessen Horowitz’s returns, Mattermark breaks down realized vs unrealized IRR.

> CBInsights has 2016 data on startups acquiring other startups. Dropbox and Infor top the list.

> 300 million of Facebook Messenger’s billion users are using audio/video call features, which is about the size of Skype’s entire user base.

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

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

The LatAm Venture Bulletin is made possible with support from: