> #UNICORN Tiger Global and Insight Partners led a USD500m round for Tiendanube (Nuvemshop), an Argentine e-commerce platform with operations in Brazil and Mexico, with participation from Sunley House Capital, VMG Partners, Alekon and Owl Rock, and follow-on from KASZEK, Qualcomm Ventures, Accel, ThornTree Capital and Kevin Efrusy (Accel), at a reported USD3.1b valuation.
- Tiendanube raised USD90m led by Accel in March. IGNIA Partners, NXTP and Elevar Equity invested previously.
- VIEW LAVCA’s Unicorn Leaderboard for the latest list of LatAm unicorns.
> #UNICORN SoftBank and Tencent led a USD350m Series D for Argentine fintech Ualá, with participation from D1 Capital, 166 2nd LLC, the FO of WeWork founder Adam Neuman, and Jacqueline Reses (Square), and follow-on from Soros Management, Goldman Sachs, Ribbit Capital and monashees, at a reported USD2.45 valuation.
- SoftBank and Tencent led a USD150m round in 2019, in SoftBank’s first known deal in Argentina; Goldman Sachs led a USD34m round in 2018.
- VIEW LAVCA’s Unicorn Leaderboard for the latest list of LatAm unicorns.
> #UNICORN #CVC Greenoaks and Tencent led a USD120m Series E+ for Brazilian proptech QuintoAndar at a reported USD5.1b valuation.
> Cora, a Brazilian lending platform for SMEs, raised a USD116m Series B led by Greenoaks, with participation from Tiger Global and Tencent, and follow-on from KASZEK, QED Investors and Ribbit Capital.
- KASZEK, QED and Ribbit invested USD26.7m in April.
> #CVC Valor Capital Group and Prosus Ventures led a USD104m Series B for Kovi, a Brazilian rental car platform for on-demand drivers, with participation from monashees, GFC, Quona Capital, Broadhaven Ventures, GFC, Norte Ventures, MAYA Capital, PIPO and Globo Ventures. Angels Justin Mateen (Tinder) and Peter Thiel (Founders Fund) also participated.
- Kovi recently closed a USD20m credit facility.
- GFC led a USD30m round and monashees led a USD10.5m round in 2019.
- Co-founders Adhemar Milani Neto (CEO) and Joao Costa (CTO) are alums of rideshare 99.
> #CVC Mercado Libre acquired a 1.25% stake in Aleph Group, a Miami- and Argentina-based content broker for social media platforms, for USD25m.
> Alexia Ventures and Igah Ventures led a USD10.3m Series A for LogComex, a Brazilian international trade management platform, with participation from Endeavor Scale Up Ventures, and follow-on from Invest Tech and Caravela Capital
- Caravela and Invest Tech led a ~USD600k round in 2020.
> #FOODTECH #CVC Sofinnova Partners led a USD10m Series A for Protera, a Chilean biotech developing a protein to naturally extend food shelf-life, with participation from Grupo Bimbo and ICL Planet.
- Sofinnova led a USD5.6m round in 2020.
> #HEALTHTECH SBPar invested ~USD10m in Salux, a Brazilian operations management platform for hospitals and clinics.
> F360, a Brazilian finance management platform for SMEs, raised ~USD10m from Brazilian PE HiPartners and late stage investor HIX Capital.
> Kayyak Ventures led a USD7m Series A for wherEX, a Chilean RFP platform for sourcing industrial materials and services, with participation from Jaguar Ventures, FJ Labs and Tuesday Capital.
> Orchata, a Mexican on-demand grocery delivery platform operating its own micro-fulfillment centers, raised a USD4m seed round from YC, JAM Fund, FJ Labs, Venture Friends, Investo and Foundation Capital.
> #EDTECH #ANGEL Beedo Edtech, a Brazilian corporate training platform, raised ~USD4m from angels Marco Serralheiro (DIGIA) and Marcus Buaiz (Act10n).
> #FOODTECH Brazilian growth equity fund X8 Investimentos invested ~USD3.6m in Vida Veg, a Brazilian plant-based meat and dairy producer.
> #EDTECH Alexia Ventures led a ~USD3.4m round for HeroSpark, a Brazilian education platform for freelancers selling digital-first products.
- HeroSpark was formed from the merger of Brazilian edtechs Edools and EADBOX in 2019.
> #EDTECH Iporanga Ventures led a ~USD3.2m round for Driven, a Brazilian education platform for tech professionals, with participation from ONEVC, FundersClub, 3G Radar and angels Patrick Sigrist (iFood), Sergio Furio (Creditas) and Brian Requarth (Latitud/Grupo ZAP).
> #IOT Jaguar Ventures, GFC, Picus Capital and Kayyak Ventures led a USD3.6m seed round for Pulsar, a US-based manufacturing analytics platform for factories in the US and Mexico.
- CEO Matías Castillo on Pulsar’s market opportunity and sensor-based product:
There are more than 50k traditional factories in North America with an aggregate revenue of USD2t+ and most don't have an automated monitoring system that gives real-time visibility of their production operations. Most inefficiencies come from people in the factory floor so we see that plant intelligence is not yet about automation or failure prediction, but about having operating visibility, digitalizing production and productivity data, and changing the company’s culture to be data-driven.
One of the biggest challenges to scale a product in the manufacturing industry is to have a low-touch sales and implementation strategy. The fact that we offer a standalone end-to-end solution that we can deploy in a day in any type of factory allows us to scale much faster than competitors, even those providing software-only solutions. The uniqueness about Pulsar is that a customer can get value from day one without any effort, because some performance indicators are built automatically from our sensor data.
> #CRYPTO #DEFI KASZEK led USD3m round for Exactly, an Argentine decentralized finance platform building a credit protocol on Ethereum, with participation from NXTP, Sur Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Maker Growth, Baires DAO, 11-11 DG Partners and Newtopia VC.
- Angels Marcos Galperin (Mercado Libre), Matias Woloski (Auth0) and JP Thieriot (Uphold) also participated.
- This is KASZEK’s first known investment in a DeFi startup.
> #DEBT SP Ventures invested ~USD2.7m in venture debt in Digibee, an e-commerce digital integration manager for SMEs.
- Digibee raised a ~UD5m round led by GAA Investments in 2020.
> #HEALTHTECH #CVC Grupo NotreDame Intermédica led a ~USD2m round for NeuralMed, a Brazilian medical record analysis platform for hospitals, with follow-on from IDB Lab, Alexia Ventures, Norte Ventures and MG Tech Invest.
> #HEALTHTECH Astella Investimentos invested ~USD1.6m in Kompa Saúde (formerly Assina Saúde), a digital healthcare platform providing virtual nursing services for low-income Brazilians.
> #HEALTHTECH #ANGEL Anjos do Brasil invested ~USD1.6m in Holistix, a Brazilian health and wellness platform.
> #EDTECH Sirius Education, a Brazilian six-month tech training program for tech professionals, raised ~USD1m from Garan Ventures and angels Camila Farani (G2 Capital), Rodrigo Cartacho (Sympla), Joao Selarin (Zenvia) and Gustavo do Valle (Decorated).
- Sirius was founded by Startup Brasil alum Felipe Matos.
> Canary invested in Marvin, a Brazilian working capital financing platform.
> #PROPTECH #ANGEL Home Capital, a Colombian residential marketplace raised USD800k from angels Santiago Botero (Finsocial), Carlos Raul Yepes (Bancolombia) and Sol Beatriz Arango (Nutresa), among others.
> Immunize System, a Brazilian compliance automation platform focused on compliance with Brazil’s Data Privacy Law for SMEs (LGPD), raised ~USD400k led by Brazilian accelerator Leavening.
> Fundación Chile’s CLIN invested USD250k in Zippedi, a sales and inventory management platform for SMEs.
> DOMO Invest led a ~USD240k investment for Faster, a Brazilian graphic design platform for corporates, with participation from angels Paulo Silveira (Alura) and Marco Fishben (Descomplica).
- Faster’s clients include Ambev, Warner and L'Occitane.
> #AGTECH GR8 Ventures and AgroVen invested in Dioxd, a Brazilian agriculture products manufacturer developing seed treatments.
> #CVC Z-Tech, Ambev’s CVC arm, invested in Mercafacil, a Brazilian operations management platform for small retailers.