DEALS

> Vostok Emerging Finance led a US$25m Series C investment in Konfio, a Mexican lending platform for small businesses, with participation from existing investors KaszeK Ventures, Quona Capital, QED Investors, and the IFC, among others. The IFC led Konfio’s US$10m Series B in 2017.

• READ LAVCA's interview with Konfio CEO David Arana

> Dalus Capital and the IFC made a US$10m investment in Mexican fintech eFactor Network and financial intermediary eFactor Diez.

> monashees+ led a R$19m investment in Volanty, a used car marketplace, with participation from Canary, which led a R$2.5m seed investment in 2017.

> #HEALTHTECH monashees+ and Qualcomm Ventures made a R$14.7m investment in Hi Technologies, a Brazilian healthcare startup. Hi Technologies received an investment from Positivo Tecnologia in April 2016.

> Alberto Hauser of Grupo ABX, Valiant Capital, Thomasnet, and Battery Road Digital Holdings made a R$15m investment in Gaveteiro, a Brazilian B2B ecommerce platform.

> Confrapar made a R$12.8m investment in Hands Digital S/A, a mobile data and advertising firm that spun out from an acquisition by Dentsu Aegis Network in 2016.

> #AGTECH Criatec 3, managed by Inseed Investimentos, made a R$10m investment in Intergado, a Brazilian precision livestock platform.

> Angel Ventures Peru, Trefilia Capital, Quinvest, and other family offices made a US$2m investment in SeguroSimple, a Peruvian digital insurance brokerage operating in Peru and Mexico.

> BNDES’ Criatec 3, managed by Inseed Investimentos, made a R$6m investment in Bluepex, a Brazilian cybersecurity solution.

> #AGTECH SP Ventures made a R$4.5m investment in SpecLab, a soil fertility analysis solution that spun out of Brazilian agriculture lab IBRA (Instituto Brasileiro de Análises).

> Confrapar’s aerospace fund, Fundo PE1 Aerotec, and Travel Capitalist Ventures led a R$3m investment in Flapper, a Brazilian private aviation marketplace. Flapper previously raised funding from Brazilian accelerator ACE and angels.

> FIR Capital and Bzplan made a R$2m investment in Rede Vistorias, a Brazilian real estate survey platform.

> Wayra Peru and undisclosed angel investors made a US$398k seed investment in Peruvian IT startup Quantum Talent SAC.

> Canary made a R$1m investment in LaPag, a Brazilian beauty salon management platform, with participation from angel investor Renato Feitas (co-founder of 99).

> The Yield Lab launched a Latin American program in Buenos Aires, with initial investments in Agree Market, Kilimo and Eiwa.

> Unnamed investors made a R$1.5m investment in WallJobs, a career platform for young Brazilians.

> Unnamed investors made a R$500k investment in LadyDriver, a Brazilian rideshare startup for female passengers.

> IGNIA, Antai venture Builder, Pedralbes Partners, Bonsai Venture Capital, and Banco Sabadell made an undisclosed investment in Trendier, an affordable fashion platform operating in Mexico and Colombia.

> Alsagra Ventures, Ajba Software and Intelectix made an undisclosed investment in Muventa, a Mexican cloud ecommerce platform for small businesses.

> #HEALTHTECH Kick Ventures made an undisclosed investment in Anestech, a Brazilian startup working on anesthesiology technology.

> #HEALTHTECH Labi, a Brazilian clinical lab analysis startup, raised an undisclosed investment from investors including Luís Terepins, Eduardo Vidigal, and Marcus Vinícius da Costa.

> #EDTECH Ubits, a Colombian corporate learning platform, will receive a US$120k investment from Y Combinator as part of its Spring 2018 cohort.

> The Venture City will grant US$20k to Poder.IO, a Miami-based real time audience behavior platform, and Softcube, a Ukrainian product recommendation platform, through its Garden growth accelerator program.

> #HEALTHTECH Intel Capital led a US$8.5m Series A investment in EchoPixel, a California-based VR solution for interpreting medical images, with participation from existing investors Aurus Capital, Runa Capital and Harris & Harris Group, and new investors LAM Research and Binomial.

> LEAP Global Partners led a US$8.5m Series A investment in Listo, a consumer financial services startup offering insurance products and loans to US-based Latinos, with participation from Mexico Ventures and Continental Advisors.

> Kleiner Perkins led a US$40m Series B investment in Spotahome, a Madrid-based rental property platform, with participation from TheVentureCity, Seaya Ventures and Passion Capital. This is Kleiner Perkins' first investment in a Spanish company.

FUNDS

> Chilean VC Fen Ventures is preparing to raise a US$21m Fund II, anchored by CORFO.

> Through its Foresee innovation program, Brazilian stock exchange B3 made an undisclosed investment in Redpoint eventures' new fund, which is targeting US$130m in capital commitments.

> #CRYPTO Bossa Nova Investimentos launched a global securitized token, BR11, focused on Latin American businesses. Founding Partner Pierre Schurmann says that, if successful, it will be a “game changer” for Brazilian and LatAm startups. Details:

• BR11 is an offshore fund that will raise US$11-20m to make seed investments in 11 companies from Bossa Nova’s portfolio.
• Unlike typical offshore VC funds, BR11 will issue a digital security token, based on the ERC20 protocol, to allow any global qualified investor to acquire the token with a minimum US$5m investment. (Brazilian & Chinese investors are excluded due to regulatory issues).
• The BR11 token will trade on the Open Finance platform after a six-month lockup period.

> #PE IDB Invest will contribute up to US$10m in Bozano’s Growth Capital Fund to finance midsize Brazilian companies.

EXITS

> NXTP Labs and NEVEQ Capital Partners exited real estate platform Properati through a merger with OLX.

> Bozano Investimentos’ Criatec 2 exits Porto Alegre-based e-commerce company Digital Commerce Group (DCG) with sale to Linx for R$67m. This is Criatec 2’s first divestment.

M&A

> Nubox, a small business accounting SaaS platform operating in Chile and Colombia, acquired Colppy, an Argentine SaaS company, for an undisclosed amount. Nubox also announces a follow-on investment from Riverwood Capital.

> ContaAzul, a Brazilian software platform for small businesses, acquired Wabbi, a management platform for accounting offices, for an undisclosed amount. Valor says this is ContaAzul’s first acquisition.

• Tiger Global led ContAzul’s R$100m Series D earlier this year, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst. Ribbit Capital led the company’s previous R$20m round in 2015 with participation from monashees+, Tiger Global, Valar Ventures, and 500 Startups.

> Walmart is in negotiations to acquire Cornershop, according to La República.

IMPACT

> The IFC co-led the development of Guidelines for Investing in Responsible Digital Financial Inclusion with a group of 50+ fintech investors and digital finance innovators. View guidelines and signatories here.

> ANDE has launched funding for impact measurement and gender inclusion in Latin America, and will disburse US$150k across 4-6 projects, with the goal of building capacity among intermediaries, small/growing businesses, and researchers to measure impact with a gender lens. Details here.

> SVX Mexico is hiring a Financial Officer for impact investments. Apply here.

> Innovate UK, through the Colombian Prosperity Fund Programme, will invest up to £3m to enable UK and Colombian partners to address agricultural challenges in post-conflict and conflict-affected regions in Colombia. Apply by July 18.

> Harvard Business Review: Can Impact Investing Avoid the Failures of Microfinance?

NEW MEMBERS

> LAVCA welcomes new member Canary.

Canary is a Brazil-based VC that has raised ~R$160m for its first fund focused on seed/early stage.

• Investments include: Docket, Grão Direto, Gupy, Terramagna, Volanty, Rapidoo, IDwall, SmartMEI, Hash Lab, and others.
• Partners: Marcos Toledo, Mate Pencz, and Florian Hagenbuch in São Paulo, Patrick de Picciotto in New York, Julio Vasconcellos, in San Francisco
• Operator LPs include Hugo Barra, Sergio Furo, Benjamin Gleason, Fabrice Grinda, Vitor Lourenço, Brian Requarth, Vinicius Roveda, Thomaz Srougi, Luciano Tavares, Guilherme Telles, David Velez, and others.

NEWS

> TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield is coming to São Paulo in November, through a partnership with Facebook.

> Epoca Negocios: Investimentos em venture capital mais do que dobram na América Latina, com liderança do Brasil

> Terra interviews Vinicius Roveda of ContaAzul, Gabriel Braga of QuintoAndar, Hernan Kazah of KazeK Ventures and Bedy Yang of 500 Startups in Fundos 'gringos' ajudam startups brasileiras a decolar.

> Walmart Mexico hired Ignacio Caride from MercadoLivre to run its online operation.

> The new Cubo building in São Paulo will include a dedicated floor for edtech startups, through a partnership with Itaú and Kroton.

> Congrats to Guatemalan solar startup Kingo Energy, a finalist at Cannes’ product design competition for its work with Ogilvy Guatemala. READ LAVCA’s interview with Kingo founder Juan Fermín Rodriguez.

> Reuters: Bike theft puts the brakes on China's Mobike in Mexico City

NUMBERS

> 188 new fintech startups have been launched in Brazil in the past 18 months, according to Finnovista’s updated Fintech Radar Brazil, produced with the IDB and Finnovation.

> Google invested US$700m in Brazil in the past 15 months, according to Google Brazil president Fabio Coelho. Most of the investment was in in submarine cables, data centers and a content producer studio for YouTube in Rio de Janeiro.

> Nubank has over 4m credit card customers, and opened 1.5m digital savings accounts in 6 months in Brazil.

> WhatsApp has 1.5 billion monthly active users, more than Facebook Messenger or WeChat

> Women-founded startups received only 2.2% of VC funding in 2017, but there’s more to the funding gap: Women-founded startups also raise smaller rounds, according to a new study by Boston Consulting Group and MassChallenge. But they generate more revenue. #CHANGETHERATIO

> By 2050, renewables will supply 87% of electricity in Europe, 55% in the US, 62% in China, and 75% in India, according to the Bloomberg Energy Outlook.

> Ant Financial, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba that includes Alipay, raised a US$14b “Series C” in the largest single fundraise ever for a private company. Bloomberg says Ant Financial "is already China’s biggest online payments service and controls the world’s largest money market fund as it moves deeper into areas from consumer lending to credit scoring."

> Bloomberg: Millionaires Now Control Half of the World’s Personal Wealth, up from ~45% in 2012.

TECH POLICY

> Chile’s Ministro de Hacienda announced plans for new taxes on digital platforms, including transport, entertainment, and ecommerce applications that do not have a physical presence in the country, as part of changes to modernize the tax code in September.

PEOPLE & PROGRAMS

> WORK AT LAVCA: We are looking for a new Research Analyst. Details here.

> Priority member registration is NOW OPEN for the LAVCA Venture Investors Annual Meeting in New York on September 27.

> WeXchange Pitch Competition launches today with events in São Paulo, Bogota, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires. Women entrepreneurs, especially those with a focus on STEM, are encouraged to apply by July 30. And SAVE THE DATE—this year’s WeXchange is November 6 in Lima, Peru.

> Chile will host its first corporate innovation summit, InnovaSummit, on June 21. Details here.

> Canary is hosting a Brasileiros em Tech event on July 12 in San Francisco with executives from Brex, Instagram, Dr. Consulta, and TFG. RSVP here.

> MIT's Solve initiative is awarding US$650k in prize funding for tech solutions around four Global Challenges: Coastal communities, frontline health care, teachers and educators, and the future of work. Apply by July 1.

> Argentine startups can apply to present at Foro de Capital para la Innovación - región litoral centro. Apply by July 6.

> Startse and Cia.Hering are hosting a pitch day for startups innovating around the retail experience. Details here.

> #AGTECH 17 startups from Uruguay, Perú, and Colombia join NXTP Labs’ Agtech 2018 cohort. Check them out.

INVESTOR POV

> The IDB interviewed Dalus Capital, Kubo Financiero, and others on AI development in the region.

> Roberto Charvel interviewed 15 Mexican early-stage funds about valuations and entrepreneur equity stakes, and found that Founder/CEOs make an average of US$65k per year.

> Gestión.pe interviews Greg Mitchell of Angel Ventures Peru about the Peruvian startup ecosystem

CRYPTO

> Bloomberg Businessweek features Decentraland, a virtual world built on the Etherium blockchain, in Making a Killing in Virtual Real Estate. Argentine co-founders Esteban Ordano and Ari Meilich raised US$26m via ICO in 2017. Projects include Genesis City, a digital hub for VR ecommerce.

> Emol: Tribunal de Libre Competencia ordena a bancos reabrir cuentas corrientes a empresas de criptomonedas

> Andreessen Horowitz is launching a new US$300 crypto fund, a16z crypto, which will invest in crypto assets and blockchain projects. Partners Chris Dixon and Katie Haun will co-lead the fund, which has some interesting structure: An LP mandate allows for investing in ICOs, they are looking at all stages and geographies, and they plan to hold investments for longer than 10 years, according to Fortune.

THE FUTURE

> #AI Login reviews new tools from Google and others to remove bias from AI.

> Baratunde Thurston published a provocative New Tech Manifesto on data collection:

I’m going to make a light legal proposal that we extend property rights to cover our data—both the data we generate (such as photos or messages) and data derived from our activities (such as our purchase history, location, or our interactions within a service, including swipes, taps, clicks, and more).

The LatAm Venture Bulletin is the VC/tech newsletter and content platform of the Latin American Private Capital Association.

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