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Editor's Note: The LatAm Venture Bulletin is produced by Carlos Ramos de la Vega, LAVCA’s Manager of Venture Capital. Former Editor Julie Ruvolo now publishes our global newsletter, the Global Tech Brief.

TLDR

📢  Brazilian freight marketplace CargoX crosses USD1b valuation

📢  isaac fetches largest known edtech round for a Latin American startup

📢  Funds: Canary closes USD100m fund; Draper Cygnus launches USD50m fund

📢  New Rounds for: Stori, Fazenda Futuro, QI Tech, Houm, CERC, StartSe, Zak & RecargaPay

LAVCA DATA

Building on the Latin America VC investment all-time highs of 2021, LAVCA analyzed the trend lines of VC round sizes in the region since 2019, where the average and median have increased across all investment stages.

Key Insights:

🔥 The average ticket size for early-stage rounds tripled from 2019 to 2021, from USD6.9m to USD21.2m.

🔥 The average ticket size for seed and late stage rounds doubled since 2019.

🔥 Late-stage VC dealmaking has already exceeded prior annual records. From Q1 – Q3 2021, 44 late-stage deals closed at an average ticket size of USD111m, compared to 38 deals averaging USD91m in all of 2019.

DEALS

> UNICORN Tencent and SoftBank led a USD200m Series F for CargoX, a Brazilian trucking marketplace, with participation from Valor Capital Group and MFO Oikos, and follow-on from Lightrock, at a reported unicorn valuation.

• Tencent and SoftBank committed USD150m of the total round.
• CargoX raised a USD80m Series E led by Lightrock in 2020 and raised USD60m from Blackstone and Hudson Structured Capital Management in 2018.

> GGV and GIC led a USD125m Series C for Stori, a Mexican credit card issuer, with participation from General Catalyst, Goodwater Capital and Tresalia Capital, and follow-on from Lightspeed, Vision Plus Capital, BAI Capital and Source Code Capital.

• Stori also secured USD75m in debt financing from Community Investment Management (CIM).
• Stori raised a USD32.5m Series B led by Lightspeed in March; Bertelsmann Investments led a USD10m Series A in 2020.
  

> EDTECH General Atlantic led a USD125m round for isaac, a Brazilian financial management platform for schools, with participation from SoftBank and KASZEK.

• This is the largest known round for an edtech startup in Latin America according to LAVCA Data, after Brazilian edtech Descomplica’ USD84.5m round in February.

> FOODTECH Rage Capital and BTG Pactual led a ~USD60m Series C for Fazenda Futuro, a Brazilian foodtech focused on making plant-based meat alternatives, at a reported USD400m valuation, with participation from XP and follow-on from monashees, Go4It Capital, MFO Turim and Enfini Ventures.

• BTG Pactual, Enfini and MFO Turim led a USD25m round in September 2020; monashees and Go4It Capital invested USD8.5m in 2019.

 

> GIC led a USD50m Series A for QI Tech, a Brazilian API-based credit issuance platform.

• QI tech is the first Direct Credit Company (Sociedade de Credito Direto) approved by the Brazilian Central Bank.

 

> PROPTECH Goodwater Capital led a USD35m Series A for Houm, a Chilean home purchase and rental marketplace with operations in Chile, Mexico and Colombia, with participation from Fifth Wall, Fen Ventures, Broadhaven and Rahul Mehta (DST Global), and follow-on from ONEVC.

• Houm raised a USD8m round in May; Village Capital, Magma Partners and Fondo Alerce invested previously.

>  2TM, Mercado Bitcoin’s parent company, led a ~USD18m round for Central de Recebíveis (CERC), a Brazilian receivables processor and clearing services provider.

• Valor Capital Group and GP Investimentos led a ~USD13.4m round in CERC in August 2020.

> Patria Investimentos led a ~USD15m Series A for StartSe, a Brazilian open innovation platform with operations in Brazil, US, China, Israel and Portugal.

> Tiger Global led a USD15m Series A for Zak, a Brazilian financial management platform for restaurants, with participation from Valor Capital Group, monashees, Canary and Base10.

> RecargaPay, a Brazilian mobile payments platform, raised a USD10m Series C+ from IDB Invest, IDC Ventures and Fuel Venture Capital.

• IDC Ventures and Fuel led a USD70m Series C in March; TheVentureCity, IFC and Ventech led a USD22m round in 2018.

> Goldfinch Partners, a US-based enterprise VC, invested ~USD5.6m in Divibank, a Brazilian revenue-based financing platform for startups and SMEs.

• Divibank raised a USD3.6m seed round led by Better Tomorrow in June.

> HEALTHTECH Vox Capital led a ~USD4.8m Series A for Vitalk, a Brazilian B2B mental health platform for employees, with participation from Goodwater Capital, Valor Capital Group and Green Rock.

> AGTECH monashees and MAYA Capital led a USD3.5m seed round for Tarken, a Brazilian grain trading marketplace, with participation from Gilgamesh Ventures and angels Carlos Garcia (Kavak), Pierpaolo Barbieri (Ualá), Brian Requarth (Latitud) and Gokul Rajaram (DoorDash).

> PANAMA Mucker Capital led a USD3.2m seed round for AtomChat, a Panama-based asynchronous sales management platform running on WhatsApp, with participation from Techstars.

> Canary led a ~USD3m seed round for Doji, a UK-based e-commerce marketplace for second-hand products, with participation from Norte Ventures, 1289 Capital and angels Lucas Medloa (PayPal LatAm) and Eduardo Alcalay (Bank of America Brazil).

• Doji was founded by Brazilian Fernando Montera Filho.

> Iporanga Ventures led a ~USD3m round for Nomo, a Brazilian MVNO, with participation from Norte Ventures, the FO of Jacques Nasser and Guilherme Weege (Malwee).

> AGTECH Bossa Nova Investimentos invested ~USD3m in Sardrones, a Brazilian drone manufacturer for seed plantation in agriculture fields.

> Turbodega, a Peruvian company storage management platform, raised a USD3m round from Harlem Capital, 2048 Ventures, K50 Ventures, Reflect Ventures, Green Egg Ventures, Plug and Play, Supernode Ventures and Kli Capital.

• This is Harlem Capital’s first investment in a Latin American startup.

> Canary led a ~USD2m seed round for Civi, a Brazilian news and events platform for neighborhoods, with participation from Norte Ventures and angels David Velez (Nubank) and Guilherme Bonifacio (iFood).

> CVC Grupo Emasa, a Chilean vehicle parts manufacturer, invested USD2m in Jooycar, a Chilean insurtech for real-time automotive data.

• HCS Capital invested USD700k in 2020 and USD3m in 2018.
• Jooycar expanded to the US through the launch of its subsidiary Fleetr in November 2020.
  

 

> Canary and Vast Ventures led a USD1.8m pre-seed round for Castor, a Mexican payroll platform providing Mexican employees access to their earned wages, with participation from First Check Ventures and Latitud.

> PROPTECH Terracotta Ventures and Feba Capital led a ~USD1.4m seed round for imobles, a Brazilian real estate platform exclusively for residential buyers.

> ANGEL Smart Break, a Brazilian startup installing pop-up grocery stores in residential condominiums and companies, raised a ~USD1.1m round from Anjos do Brasil and Columbia Alumni Angels.

> LASTMILE Dadneo and Pomona Impact invested USD1m in Moovin, a Costa Rican last-mile delivery platform.

> DOMO Invest and ABSeed Ventures led a ~USD700k round for MyWork, a Brazilian employee management platform for SMEs, with participation from Raio Capital and follow-on from Bossa Nova Investimentos, which invested in 2019.

> Canary led a ~USD340k seed round for Fen, a Brazilian influencer marketing management platform, with participation from Latitud and Robson Privado (MadeiraMadeira).

EXITS

> Astella Investimentos, Barn Investimentos, Redpoint eventures, Alexia Ventures, Wayra, Invest Tech and Bossa Nova Investimentos exited Skore, a Brazilian corporate training platform, through a sale to UOL Edtech, a Brazilian B2B edtech developing MBA and post-graduate courses for higher education institutions and corporate training programs.

• Astella led a ~USD2.2m round for Skore January.

> DGF Investimentos exited Reclame AQUI, a Brazilian online brand review platform, through a sale to Brazilian fintech Stone.

> monashees, Mountain Nazca, FJ Labs and Class 5 Global exited TrueHome, a Mexican residential real estate platform, through a sale to Brazilian proptech Loft.

• monashees and Class 5 Global led a USD8.8m round for TrueHome in March 2020.

> MSW Capital exited Olivia, a US-based personal finance management application that reached 200k users in Brazil during the pandemic, through a sale to Nubank.

• MSW Capital invested ~USD300k in 2019.

> BTG Pactual’s boostLab exited Digesto, a Brazilian court proceeding monitoring platform, through a sale to JusBrasil, a Brazilian legal and regulatory information platform.

• BTG invested in 2019.

 

> 1H 2021 was the second highest semester on record for VC exits (USD600m), according to LAVCA data, behind 1H 2018 (USD649m). Stay tuned for our full-year VC exit data.

FUNDS

> Canary held a USD100m final close for its third flagship fund.

• Co-founder Marcos Toledo: “We had the chance to expand our investor base across geographies, such as Asia, Latin America and the US, and to different pools of capital, such as US endowments and foundations. Success cases in the region are helping more investors understand the market and see the potential of really big companies to be created here.”
• Canary has had access to 90%+ of all funding rounds that have happened in Brazil since 2017, according to Toledo.
• Canary’s portfolio includes Buser, Sallve, Hashdex, Facily and Trybe.

> CVC TOTVS, a Brazilian enterprise software solutions platform, launched a ~USD60m CVC arm to invest in healthtech, retail, manufacturing, financial services, agriculture and education.

• TOTVS’ most recent transaction activity includes the purchase of RD Station, a Brazilian marketing automation platform, at a reported ~USD360m valuation in March.

> Draper Cygnus launched Draper Cygnus Latam Fund, its fourth flagship vehicle with a USD50m target.

• US-based Tim Draper is already an investor in the fund.
• The new fund has made seven investments: Novo Space (spacetech), Stamm (biotech), Lemmon (crypto), Codiga (enterprise software), Oasys (proptech), microTERRA (foodtech) and Voyager (healthtech).

> Brazilian VC TM3 Capital held a ~USD20m close for TM3 Fund Capital VC4, its third flagship fund to invest in IoT, blockchain, and SaaS early-stage startups.

• TM3 Fund Capital VC4 has BNDES, BANDES, BRDE and Fomento Parana as anchor investors.

> CVC Globant Ventures launched BeKindTech Fund, a USD10m vehicle targeting investments in startups focused on tackling the negative collateral effects caused by the misuse of technology.

> Costa Rican VC Carïcaco partnered with Carao Ventures and Newtopia VC to launch a platform for dealflow sharing and mentorships for portfolio founders across funds.

> DOMO Invest seeks to raise an additional ~USD40m for DOMO Venture II, its second flagship fund, and DOMO Enterprise, a dedicated fund targeting investments in B2B startups in Brazil.

• DOMO held a first close for Domo Enterprise in May 2020.

STARTUPS

> M&A Argentine fintech Ualá acquired ABX Capital, a Mexican bank approved by the The National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV), to expand its product offering in the Mexican market.

• SoftBank and Tencent led a USD350m Series D for Ualá in August at a reported USD2.45b valuation.

> EDTECH Microsoft partnered with Colombian edtech Platzi to launch Microsoft Azure Challenge, a no-cost training program to certify 2k developers in Microsoft’s products.

> CRYPTO La Haus, a Colombia- and Mexico-based residential real estate platform, announced it will now accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.

• La Haus raised USD50m led by Acrew Capital in August; Greenspring Associates led a USD35m Series B earlier this year.

> CRYPTO Mexican crypto platform Bitso will be the core infrastructure provider for El Chivo, the digital crypto wallet launched by the Salvadoran government.

> João del Valle of EBANX reviews the evolution of payment solutions and e-commerce platforms in Latin America in A wave of LatAm fintechs are laying down new global commerce rails.

> SECURITY Sebastian Stranieri of VU Security reflects on the need for Latin American companies to adopt better cybersecurity solutions in Why Latin America Needs To Build A Cybersecurity Fortress ASAP.

• VU raised USD12m from NXTP, IDB Lab, Globant and Telefonica in July.

NEWS

> ELECTIONS Chile, Nicaragua and Honduras will hold presidential elections this month.

• TIME reviews the role of social media chatbots in spreading misinformation about the upcoming Honduran election: "This latest push ahead of Honduras’ critical election underscores not only how ubiquitous online political disinformation has become in Central America, but how social media companies struggle — and often fail — to moderate or punish government-tied disinformation schemes in Latin America and other parts of the world."

> FOODTECH TechCrunch: Latin America’s food paradox.

• “The agricultural sector is crucial for Latin American livelihoods, contributing to an average of 4.7% of GDP and employing at least 14% of the region’s population. But paradoxically, the number of undernourished people in the region keeps growing year after year, increasing by around 13m people over the past five years.”
• GPCA launched 31 Global Foodtechs to Watch, a list of VC-backed startups developing alternate sources of animal protein across Latin America, Southeast Asia, India, China, Africa and CEE, including Fazenda Futuro (Brazil), Hearbest Foods, microTERRA (Mexico), and NotCo, Protera and Food For the Future (Chile).

> CROSSBORDER Rest of World reviews the journey of Shopee, one of Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce platforms, to become Brazil’s most downloaded shopping app in The Future of Brazilian gaming: shopping.

> Cate Ambrose of GPCA shares her view on the state of VC investment in Asia and Latin America on CNBC from SuperReturn International.

• “We have seen over USD11b invested in Latin America just this year, which is at least four times more than what we saw a couple of years ago. Often technology [in Latin America and Asia] is leapfrogging the one developed in the US and Western Europe because there is no legacy infrastructure and there is an opportunity for new solutions and new approaches.”

INVESTORS

> Federico Antoni of ALLVP shared his view on being an early investor in Fintual, a Chilean robo-advisor and asset management platform which just raised a USD39m Series B from Sequoia:

• “The best founders I know are going for a team of lead investors and board members that include both global and local players. Our global partners such as Accel, Sequoia, QED and Lightspeed provide support on everything global and bring an experience unique for the founders. ALLVP helps with everything regional: business development, hiring and regulation. The Accel-ALLVP team was key for Cornershop’s success and is working very well for Flink. We’re replicating this formula with other top tier firms such as Sequoia in almost every deal because it works for founders and helps companies succeed. In an age of abundant capital, the value proposition of a joint term sheet of two top tier investors, local and global, is hard to beat.”

> Fen Ventures, Taram Capital, Genesis Ventures and Manutara Ventures are some of the Chilean VCs who have launched offices in Miami: "Las posibilidades de encontrar un partner estadounidense y beneficios tributarios atraen a los inversionistas locales.”

> Alaya Capital expanded its investment team and opened an office in Peru. Alaya’s operations in Peru will be led by PECAP’s former Executive Director Luis Narro.

GLOBAL TECH

SIGN UP for GPCA’s Global Tech Brief. Edited by LAVCA’s Julie Ruvolo, this bi-weekly newsletter covers tech activity in Asia, Latin America, Africa, CEE and the Middle East.

PEOPLE & PROGRAMS

> AWS will host AWS Startup Day LATAM Mujeres Emprendedoras on November 25 at 12pm with the participation of Christine Kenna of IGNIA Partners, Karen Mirkin and Luisa Vesga of AWS, Hanoi Morrillo of LA7EM, Juanita Kremer, and Amparo Nalvarte of Culqi. Registration is now open.

> SVB is looking for a Vice President to join their Latin America-focused practice based out of San Francisco. Interested candidates are welcome to apply.

> KASZEK is looking for a Principal to join their investment team based out of São Paulo. Interested candidates are welcome to apply.

> Capria Ventures is looking for a Global Investment Fellow to join its Latin America investing team and work alongside Susana Garcia Robles in deals in the Global South. Interested candidates are welcome to apply.

> Andreessen Horowitz is looking for a Fintech EIR. The selected operator will receive compensation in the form of funding for their venture. Interested candidates are welcome to apply.

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.