DEALS
> Movile made a US$9m Series A investment in Colombian grocery delivery platform Mercadoni. Axon Partners and Grupo Pegasus invested previously.
- Mercadoni is Movile’s first investment outside of Brazil.
- READ our interview with CEO Pedro Freire on why LatAm is an ideal market for grocery delivery.
> The IFC led a R$15m investment in Koin, a Brazilian fintech startup focused on after-delivery payment.
> MercadoLibre (through its MeLi fund), NXTP Labs, and Alaya Capital made a US$3m investment in 123Seguro, an Argentine insurtech startup. This is the company’s first institutional financing. Co-Founder & CTO Bruno Ferrari says:
We are launching a new mobile app in Q1 2018, and planning to expand to Chile in Q2 2018. The seed round is going to help accelerate the growth of online insurance penetration in LatAm, with a transparent business model that helps policyholders and insurers alike.
> Fondo de Capital Privado Emprendimiento e Innovación SP, the corporate venture arm of EPM, made a US$2.2m investment in Reciclados Industriales de Colombia, a startup developing sustainable materials for construction.
> Fip Inseed Fima, the environmental innovation fund (Fundo de Inovação do Meio Ambiente) created by BNDES and managed by Inseed Investimentos, invested R$7.5m in Zazcar, a car-sharing service operating in São Paulo.
> Florianopolis, Brazil-based BZPlan made a R$4m investment in Eadbox, a Brazilian startup developing course distribution software. This is BZPlan’s first investment outside of the Santa Catarina area.
> Accel-KKR acquired I-Med, a Chilean digital healthcare network, for an undisclosed amount.
> Dila Capital led a US$1.6m investment in Camino Financial, an online loan platform for Hispanic small businesses based in the US. Collaborative Fund invested previously.
> Fondo Alerce made a US$1.4m investment in GeneproDX SPA, a Chilean biomedical startup working on thyroid cancer detection:
El cirujano oncólogo Hernán González, fundador y COO, explica que 40% de la población chilena (~7m de personas) presenta nódulos tiroideos, pero 20% de las biopsias no arrojan resultados concluyentes, mientras que 25% de los casos resultan ser malignos.
> BR Startups invested R$2m in Car10, a Brazilian auto maintenance platform that reached US$2m gross merchandise volume in 2017. BB Seguridade, an LP in BR Startups, will also invest up to R$5m in Car10. Fabio Gimenez, Co-Founder of Car10, shares some insights:
Brazil has a large fleet of vehicles (~90m) ,with a significant auto repair and maintenance service market of more than US$4b (with 80,000+ body-shops and auto-shops). Generally speaking, the market is considered to be low tech, with low levels of digital solutions and automation, representing a prime innovation opportunity.
> Cemex and new Chilean VC firm Manutara Ventures made a US$1m investment in Ipsum, a Chilean project management platform for the construction industry. Ipsum was accelerated by Wayra Chile, accelerator of Telefonica Open Future_. Founder/CEO Franco Giaquinto talks about the opportunity:
La construcción es una de las industrias que mas dinero mueve a nivel mundial, pero a la vez una de las mas atrasadas en penetración tecnológica y en IPSUM estamos cambiando eso…. Estamos demostrando que en Latinoamérica también podemos crear soluciones de nivel mundial que actualmente compiten con softwares de Estados Unidos y Europa, con los cuales nuestros clientes y leads nos comparan.
> Promotora Social México and NXTP Labs made an undisclosed seed investment in Lab4U, a Chilean edtech startup disrupting the way science is taught, with participation from local family offices and angels. Startup Chile and CORFO invested previously and Lab4U won WeXchange 2016. READ our interview with Co-Founder & CEO Komal Dadlani.
> Wayra Chile also invested US$500k across three startups: ZappingTV, PostedIn, and Cloner.
> Mexico's IGNIA, Kapor Capital, and others made an undisclosed Series A investment in Regalli, a New York-based white label payments platform.