QUOTABLE

- Accel’s Kevin Efrusy on Brazil

DEALS

> Monashees, Qualcomm Ventures, and Barn Investimentos invested US$3m in Strider, a Brazilian cloud-based agriculture software that helps farmers track rainfall and monitor crop health. This is Monashees’ first agtech investment.

> Lumia Capital, Tekton Ventures, FJLabs, and a group of angel investors invested US$3.5m in InstaCarro, a Brazilian platform to sell used cars.

> Ideas & Capital made a US$600k in Farrow Ventures, a Mexican mobile connectivity startup.

NEW FUNDS

> The Argentinean government has announced the creation of a national network of incubators.

M&A

> MercadoLibre acquired Axado, a Brazilian startup that manages freight tracking and logistics for retailers, for R$26m. 

> Globant acquired WAE, an innovative service design company in the UK, to expand their discovery capabilities.

PARTNERSHIPS

> Uber is partnering with Itaro, a Brazilian auto e-commerce website, to offer Uber drivers a discount on purchases. Itaro received funding from Astella Investimentos in 2014 and 2015.

IPOs

> Brazilian hosting and cloud computing services company Ascenty, a portfolio company of private equity firm Great Hill Partners, is eyeing a US$200-250m IPO on the Nasdaq in 2016.

> Twilio will be the first US unicorn to go public this year. For the first time ever, US unicorns represent less than half of the global unicorn population.

PEOPLE & PROGRAMS

> Imagine Business Lab, Microsoft’s accelerator in Chile, is accepting applications until June 26 for its fourth class of entrepreneurs. 

> Nacho Mateo, head of investment for Spain StartUp, visiting Mexico in May: “Es momento de que estas startups adopten una visión global.”

> 500 Startups #PreMoney San Francisco is coming up on June 21. Highlighted sessions include exploring the changes in VC over the past 50 years with Bill, Tim, Adam, Jesse, and Billy Draper; Insights and tactics from Mike Maples (Floodgate), as well as panel discussions with Founders and Partners from AngelList, Greylock, Accel, NEA, and others. RSVP here to use the LAVCA discount.

DEEP DIVE

> NXTP Labs published an impact study with HBS’ Josh Lerner, and the MIF/IADB, diving into NXTP Lab’s evolving accelerator program, and its impact on the early-stage tech ecosystem in Latin America. NXTP Labs has deployed over US$14m in over 160 companies.Their portfolio has generated a 4.74x return to date and raised over US$120m in follow-on capital as of mid-2015. 

> NXTP Labs' Founding Partner Ariel Arrieta: “We believe that all of the companies in which we invest need to have social impact aligned with economic impact. We believe that right now if you want to create a company you have to align those two interests.”

INVESTOR POV

> Adeo Ressi at Founder Institute on fair terms: “Only when the investors and founders own the same stock can there truly be fairness, so I don’t think it’s out of the question to see nearly 10% of early-stage deals done with common (stock) by the end of the year.”

> Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures on filling out a round: “Focus on deep pockets who are known to follow on and be supportive and avoid troublemakers. Everything else is a nice to have but not a need to have.”

> 500 Startups investee Selcuk Atli gives a straightforward take on how to pivot.

> Mary Meeker at Kleiner Perkins maps out the big picture of the global state of the internet in her annual Internet Trends report.

GLOBAL

> Uber raised US$3.5b from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. PIF managing director Yasir Al Rumayyan will join Uber's board of directors. 

> Dan Primack says: "Uber has taken a US$3.5b investment from a government that effectively prohibits women from driving—let alone driving for Uber. Uber also has accepted a US$3.5b investment from a government that requires women to have male guardians. Uber also has accepted a US$3.5b investment from a government whose court system has sentenced men to jail time and corporal punishment for the "crime" of homosexuality—not to mention all of the harsh sentences, sometimes including death, for political protest…. To my knowledge, no other Silicon Valley startup has a director from the sovereign wealth fund of a repressive political regime."

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

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