> 🦄 #UNICORNS SoftBank will lead a US$190m (and up to US$500m) investment in Gympass, a Brazilian B2B gym membership platform with global operations, at a reported valuation of US$1.1b. 

• Gympass operates in 10+ countries and launched in the US last year. Investors include General Atlantic, Redpoint eventures, KaszeK Ventures, Valor Capital, and Atomico.

> #RIDESHARE Grin and Yellow jointly raised US$150m and merged to form Grow Mobility in Latin America, only a few months after Grin merged with Ride in Brazil. The joint venture has over 1,000 employees based in the region, about 100,000 scooters and 35,000 bikes.

> Grin and Yellow both raised notably large Series A investments in 2018:
• Grin, a Mexican e-scooter startup run by CEO Sergio Romo, raised a US$45.7m Series A from Lukasz Gadowski—Founder of Delivery Hero, Shasta Ventures, DCM, SV Angel, Trinity Ventures, monashees, Base10 Partners, Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and Liquid2 Ventures.
• GGV Capital led a US$63m Series A investment in Yellow, a Brazilian dockless bike-sharing service, with participation from monashees+, Grishin Robotics, Base10 Partners, and Class 5.
• Grin CEO Sergio Romo is CEO of the new venture and Yellow co-founder Ariel Lambrecht will become Chief Product Officer.

> Pedro Waengertner of ACE comments: “Mas mal se passaram 3 meses de competição direta entre as duas startups e elas resolveram anunciar uma fusão.”

> More on this deal from The Information:


GGV and Monashees pushed for the deal, believing a combined firm could have more bargaining power from suppliers, a person familiar with the matter said. Hans Tung, managing partner of GGV, said they also thought the merged firm would have a better chance of heading off threats from larger companies like ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, which bought the Brazilian ride-hailing firm 99 last year and could enter the bike and scooter market in Latin America.

> monashees and the IFC led a US$14.3m Series A in Colombian logistics platform Liftit, with participation from Jaguar Ventures, MELI Fund, NXTP Labs, and others. LiftIt previously raised US$2.2m from 80+ investors.

• Liftit’s B2B marketplace for independent truck drivers and businesses that need cargo delivered is working with 8,000 drivers to make over 110,000 monthly deliveries in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Ecuador; clients include Bimbo, Walmart and Alpina.
• CEO Brian York says Argentina, Costa Rica, and Panama are next. York told LAVCA that truck delivery, as measured by daily deliveries and average costs, is a US$4.2b market in Bogotá and US$59.7b market in Mexico annually.

> Elephant and Peak Ventures led a US$16m Series A investment in Mosyle, a Brazilian MDM (Mobile Device Management) software company for Apple devices. DGF Investimentos invested previously.

• Mosyle moved into the enterprise market with the launch of Mosyle Business after expanding into the US with its education MDM, Mosyle Manager, in 2017.
• READ LAVCA’s interview with Founder & CEO Alcyr Araujo.

> Valor Capital led a R$11.5m investment in Gupy, an AI-powered recruiting platform, with participation from Maya Capital, a new VC fund run by Lara Lemann and Monica Saggioro, and existing investor Canary.

> IGNIA, Ataria Ventures, and Banco Sabadell made a US$3.5m investment in GoTrendier, a clothing resale marketplace founded in Mexico by Spanish entrepreneurs, to fund expansion to Colombia and Chile.

• Previous investors include Antai Venture Capital, Bonsai Venture Capital, and Pedralbes Partners.

> OLX, a global classifieds marketplace backed by Naspers, acquired Properati Brasil. The new entity is called Casafy and is supported by a R$8m investment from European funds Telor, Morcote, and others.

• In 2018, OLX merged with most of Properati’s operations, including in Argentina, but Brazil, Chile and Mexico remained independent at the time. Properati investors include NXTP Labs and NEVEQ.

> Adianta, a Brazilian receivables fintech for small businesses, raised US$8m from DGF Investimentos, 42K Investimentos, Chromo Investimentos, Capital Lab, and previous investors Yellow Ventures and OsherTech, among others.

> Carao Ventures led a US$2m follow-on investment in Speratum, a Costa Rican biotech focused on microRNA-directed oncology therapies primarily for pancreatic and ovarian cancers. Carao previously invested US$800k when Speratum was founded in 2014.

> #CVC EDP Ventures made its first Brazilian investment in Delfos, an intelligent maintenance platform applying AI to the energy industry, participating in a R$1.5m round with Bossa Nova Investimentos and BMG Uptech.

> #HEALTHTECH Chilean dental tech startup Purple Dental raised US$1m from biotech accelerator GaneshaLab, ChileGlobal Ventures, and others. Purple Dental was accelerated at MassChallenge.

> Criatec 3, managed by Inseed Investimentos, made a R$2.5m investment in Justto, a Brazilian software startup that automates the process of negotiating legal agreements, with a focus on consumer and labor law.

> #EU Mundi Ventures led a US$8.5m Series A in Sherpa, a Spanish language digital voice assistant.

FUNDS

> Bloomberg reports SoftBank is preparing a LatAm fund that “could reach several billion dollars in size.”

• SoftBank has already invested in 99, Loggi, and Gympass in Brazil.
• This fund is separate from SoftBank’s Vision Fund; unclear if it will include backing from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund given repercussions of the Khashoggi assassination.
• SoftBank COO Marcelo Claure, a Bolivian, will run the new fund. Masayoshi Son recruited Claure from Brightstar in 2013; he went on to run Sprint and sold to T-Mobile.

> #REALESTATE Marcelo Fedak is leaving Blackstone Brasil to launch Blue Macaw, a real estate fund that plans to raise US$250m-US$500m.

EXITS

> Brazilian online lender Banco Agibank SA is considering an IPO in the US after recent listings on Nasdaq and NYSE by Stone Pagamentos, PagSeguro, and Arco Educação. Expect delays.

M&A

> Siigo, a Colombian ERP software startup, acquired Ilimitada in Medellin to accelerate growth. Accel-KKR invested in Siigo in 2017.

IMPACT

> 🎤 READ: LAVCA spoke with Paul Carttar, the co-founder of the International Venture Philanthropy Center (IVPC) and former Director of the Social Innovation Fund (a priority program of the Obama Administration), about the significant role of private investment in effecting social change through impact and ESG:

Many of the most exciting “impact investment” opportunities relate to very early-stage, high-risk technologies or enterprises that are in fact the “stock and trade” of VCs... I would expect to see more VCs position themselves explicitly as social impact investors, which is likely to imply a significant increase in their emphasis and capabilities relating to due diligence around social outcomes.

• Carttar is a speaker at the 2019 Foro Latinoamericano de Inversión de Impacto (FLII), Feb 19-21 in Mérida Mexico. He will speak about how to scale impact through innovative public-private partnerships.
• CONNECT WITH LAVCA AT THE FLII: Contact nvalencia@lavca.org.

> Acumen Latam Capital Partners led a US$4.5m Series A in Peruvian edtech Crehana, with participation from Dila Capital, Mountain Nazca Mexico, and previous investors Rethink Education, Howzat Partners, and others.

• Rethink Education and others invested US$900k in 2017. Crehana was accelerated at Wayra Perú.

> Accion Venture Lab led an undisclosed investment in Jeitto, a Brazilian fintech offering a mobile purchases and payments app for underserved consumers.

> TPG launched Y Analytics, an independent public benefit corporation that wants to provide actionable data to impact investors.

• TPG is raising a second US$3b Rise Fund for impact investments.
• Rise Fund backer Bono says, “Capitalism isn’t immoral, but it is amoral and it needs direction.”

> Emily Feenstra explains why Omidyar Network invested in Laboratoria, a Peruvian coding school for women:

• More than 22 million young people in Latin America and the Caribbean neither work nor study…. 16 million are women.
• Software development will be the fastest growing career in the next decade, with Latin America requiring over 1.2 million developers by 2025.
• In Latin America, the gender gap in tech is alarmingly high. Fewer than 7% of Peruvian web developers in 2014 were women. In Mexico, 10% of programmers are women, while in Chile it is 5%.

> The Economist is hosting Investing for Impact in New York next week (Feb. 12). More details.

> NEXT MONTH: PEI/UNPRI are hosting the Responsible Investment Forum on March 5-6 in New York.

• During the program LAVCA will announce winners of the Latin American Private Equity & ESG Awards.
• RSVP: LAVCA Member investors can contact lgalamba@lavca.org to attend the award announcement and networking cocktail on March 5.
• Register for the full program here.