LatAm Venture Bulletin September 20, 2017

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LatAm Venture Bulletin
 
MEXICO & THE CARIBBEAN

>  #FUERZAMEXICO: LAVCA stands in solidarity with Mexico today. Our hearts go out to those affected by yesterday’s earthquake.

> LAVCA is also thinking of those affected by the recent and ongoing hurricane devastation in the Caribbean and Florida.

 
NEW FUNDS

> Private equity investor Mesoamerica and Polymath Ventures, a company builder for the middle class in emerging markets, formed a strategic partnership to build and scale high-impact companies across Latin America. The co-investment vehicle, with a US$40m target, will be managed by Mesoamerica and provide Series A/B funding to Polymath’s ventures.

> Congrats Ignacio Plaza, Diego González Bravo, Diego Steverlynck of Cygnus Capital for partnering with Tim Draper to launch Draper Cygnus Fund, a new fund  which aims to invest in Argentinian startups.

> #AGTECH The Mexican government committed US$4.1m to three local agtech VC funds, Ercus Abaco Fund, Innova Camp, and Enture, through FOCIR (The Capitalization and Investment Fund for the Rural Sector). FOCIR runs seven internal PE funds totaling more than US$500m, with more than 30 investments in rural projects in Mexico.

#CRYPTO Invermaster Ventures and ARG Capital partnered with Ripio co-founder David Garcia to launch Crypto Assets Fund, a US$50m crypto-currency fund.

> Troopa is a new seed fund in Buenos Aires investing in technologies empowering SMB/SMEs in Latin America. Founders Santiago Capurro, Eric Thomas, and Pablo Capurro are former entrepreneurs. Troopa’s first four investments are in Credility, Alquilando, Vozy.co, and Colppy.

> LEAP Partners is a new cross-border fund in Silicon Valley investing in startups with Latin American founders based in the US and Mexico, including PayStand, Listo Financial, Insikt, and Wizeline.

 
DEALS

> Bamboo Capital and the IFC made a US$14m investment in ComparaOnline, a price comparison site for insurance and financial services in Latin America. KaszeK Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Rise Capital, and Ribbit Capital invested previously. Cool founder story, READ this 2013 interview with CEO Sebastian Valin.

> Temasek led an undisclosed Series C investment in Brazilian big data analytics company Neoway. Temasek joins existing investors monashees+, Accel Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, PointBreak, Pollux, and Andres Prozes.

Criatec2, a fund managed by Bozano Investmentos, made a R$5.8m investment in Vindi, a Brazilian subscription/recurring billing platform.

> Criatec3 made a R$4.5m investment in SVA Tech, a Brazilian security systems and video technology supplier.

> Inseed Investimentos made a investments in Device Lab (R$2.3m), an app testing/UX platform, and Decision6 (R$2m), a retail intelligence platform, both located in Rio de Janeiro.

 

IPO

> Argentinian online travel agency Despegar.com, which is backed by Tiger Global and General Atlantic, began trading today on the NYSE.

 

LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER

> NEXT WEEK (September 28) is LAVCA’s Venture Investors Annual Meeting in New York. Join us for a full day of discussions and networking with the region’s leading early-stage investors, global investors, and invited entrepreneurs. Register here or email us to see if you qualify to attend. Access the agenda here.

 
INTERVIEWS

> Tienda Nube tackles e-commerce with Series B: Tienda Nube (known as Nuvem Shop in Brazil) is a cloud solutions e-commerce provider that raised a US$7m round from Elevar Equity, with participation from IGNIA and existing investors KaszeK Ventures, NXTP Labs, and FJ Labs. READ our interview with Co-Founder & CEO Santiago Sosa.

> Yogome is a Mexican edtech startup that raised a US$6.6m Series A from Seaya Ventures, with participation from existing investors Variv Capital and Endeavor Catalyst. READ our interview with Co-Founder & CEO Manolo Diaz (en español).

> Weex is bringing mobile to millennials in Mexico: Weex is an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) that raised an undisclosed investment from ALLVP and Coca-Cola. READ our interview with Co-Founder Ricardo Suárez.

 

IMPACT

> LAVCA spoke with Johanna Posada, Founder & Managing Director for Elevar Equity, about the opportunity for investing and exiting impact in Latin America and LP priorities when committing to an impact fund:

quotation-mark …Over the past few years, the PE/VC ecosystem has also improved significantly and as new investors come into the region, we see exit activity increasing.

> Posada also discusses Elevar's interest in the financial services sector and business models that tap into financial service adjacencies with a focus on specialized lending and/or technology, including investments in Credijusto, Afluenta, and Caja Rural Los Andes.

 

M&A

> Wine.com.br, an online wine store controlled by e.Bricks’ Grupo RBS and Península Participações, acquired CluBeer.com.br for an undisclosed amount.

 

NEWS

> Americas Quarterly visits Minas Gerais: How a Small Town in Brazil’s Interior Reinvented Itself As a World-Class Tech Hub.

> #CRYPTO: Axios has a country-by-country breakdown of the regulatory status of crypto-currency offerings, or ICOs.

>  #FINTECH: Forbes highlights fintech startups attracting capital in Latin America, citing LAVCA Data.

> The Guardian: Lawsuit says Google 'segregates' women into lower-paying jobs, stifling careers.

> Dan Primack: The National Venture Capital Association yesterday sued the Trump Administration, arguing that it violated proper administrative procedures when it delayed the International Entrepreneurs Rule in July

> ArsTechnica: Why the Equifax breach in the US is very possibly the worst leak of personal info ever.

> #EXITS: Social Capital says its 'IPO 2.0' is a better process for unicorns.

> MIT Technology Review: Investors Go Where Trump Won’t, To Immigrant Entrepreneurs:

Firms that specialize in immigrant-founded startups do so for several reasons. Typically, the VCs are immigrants themselves, know firsthand how tedious and unpredictable the visa process can be, and want to help people in similar situations. One of Unshackled Ventures’ founding partners grew up in India; the other is the son of Indian immigrants. One Way Ventures’ founding partners are from Russia and Brazil; One VC’s managing director is also Brazilian. Some of these investors think focusing on immigrants gives them a greater sense of mission and deeper connection to their work. They also tend to believe that immigrants make better entrepreneurs.

 

NUMBERS

50% — Percentage of unicorn startups in the US with at least one immigrant founder, including Instacart, Slack, SpaceX and Uber, according to a 2016 study by the National Foundation for American Policy.

> US$550m —Amount raised by crypto-currency offerings (ICOs) in June 2017, according to CNBC.

> US$10.7b — Amount of venture capital invested in China startups in Q2 2017, according to KPMG (and up 3x from Q1).

 

POLICY

Mexico policy updates on CKDs, Fintech & Bitcoin:

> Download the 2017/2018 LAVCA Scorecard for country-by-country rankings on indicators including taxation, minority shareholder rights, entrepreneurship, and capital markets development.

> READ more tech and policy updates on lavca.org/vc.

 

INVESTOR POV

> Francisco Coronel at NXTP Labs delivers a recent history of copycats versus disrupters in LatAm tech for TechCrunch.

> Anderson Thees at Redpoint eventures digs into recent CVC investments from Qualcomm, Cisco, Microsoft, Softbank, and Itaú for TechCrunch.

> #CHANGETHERATIO: Hilary Gosher of Insight Venture Partners shares why summer '17 marked a seismic shift for gender diversity in tech.

> Bloomberg: Latin America Opportunities Abound, Top Investment Fund Says

> La Nación: Search funds: un nuevo modelo de inversores llega a la Argentina

"La idea es comprar una empresa dentro de la categoría pyme que esté sana y en buen estado para mejorarla con el uso de tecnología y las mejores prácticas de negocios."

> Lux Capital’s Renata Quintini made Capital.com’s list of 50 women investors with enviable investment portfolios. Seedcamp founder Reshma Sohoni, who spoke at LAVCA’s VC in the Bay program this year, also made the cut.

> Wired digs into how Social Capital is reverse-engineering IPOs on the NYSE.

> Matt Heiman at Greylock Partners on the relevance of TAM:

"Don’t let a TAM [total addressable market] number stop you from building something great…. In fact, at the time of their Series A rounds, many of the very best venture investments would have had relatively small — or even undefined — TAMs."

> Has Silicon Valley run out of problems to solve? Juicero, which raised US$120m from Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins & others for a US$699 personal juicer, and failed spectacularly, wins a Failure Award:

"This is everything wrong about Silicon Valley in one note. A sort of unique sense of out of touch that makes people who ship chopped vegetables at 4000% mark-up think they are changing the world because of a nice looking app. And then they feel appalled that real people don't see it that way."

 

PEOPLE & PROGRAMS

> Today was the fifth edition of the Venture Capital in Brazil Forum, hosted by ABVCAP, in Menlo Park. Check out the agenda here.

> September 21 is the annual BayBrazil’s Conference at Google in Mountain View. Check out the agenda and register here.

> OPEN CALL: High-growth woman entrepreneurs with an innovative startup in science, technology, engineering, art or math (STEAM) can apply to the WeXchange Pitch Competition by September 30th. WeXchange is taking place on Dec. 4-5, in Santiago, Chile.

> blastu is hosting a festival on October 17-18 to gather and connect entrepreneurs, startups, corporations, and investors that are transforming the Brazilian and global market. Get your tickets here.

> Resultados Digitais’ popular RD Summit is October 18-20 in Florianopolis, Brazil. More info and tickets here.

> Startup Brasil is accepting applications until September 25. Startups can apply here.

> IGNIA and HSBC Mexico partnered to support Startupbootcamp FinTech Mexico City, a joint venture between Startupbootcamp FinTech and Finnovista.

> ABVCAP is hosting its 4th Brazilian Venture Capital Conference in São Paulo on October 5. Check out the agenda and speakers.

> AMEXCAP is hosting its annual event Mexico VC Day in San Francisco on October 19. Register here.

 

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

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