LAVCA MEMBER PROFILE

SoftBank Group

LAVCA sat down with Maria Tereza Azevedo of SoftBank Group to discuss the firm’s current strategy in Latin America, including their view on AI and compelling strategies to add value to portfolio companies. Maria also shared insights on recent investments like Blip and the sectors driving SoftBank’s continued focus in the region.

Deals

▸ Clara, a Mexican startup offering corporate expense management for startups, raised a USD80m equity and debt round with participation from KASZEK, Citi Ventures and General Catalyst.

• Clara secured a credit line of up to USD150m in August 2022; Coatue led a USD70m Series B in December 2021 at a USD1b valuation. 

▸ USV led a USD30m Series A for Mombak, a Brazilian reforestation startup, with participation from Lowercarbon Capital, Copa Investimentos and follow-on from KASZEK, Bain Capital and AXA IM Alts. This is the latest publicly announced equity round since Mombak raised an undisclosed round in January 2023 from KASZEK, USV, Bain Capital, CI Ventures and Byers Capital. 

• Mombak just secured a USD17m debt facility from Climate Fund and BNDES. 
• Mombak partnered with French insurer AXA in August 2023 to mobilize USD49m in private capital to invest in reforestation projects in Brazil.

▸ PROPTECH | IDB Invest provided a ~USD25.5m convertible loan to Xante, a Mexican housing marketplace in the low- and middle-income segment.

▸ HEALTHTECH | Kiwi, a Peruvian healthcare payments platform, raised a USD10m equity and debt round from undisclosed investors. 

▸ Headline led a ~USD8.7m round for Blips, a Brazilian financing platform for industrial equipment. 

▸ Prosus Ventures led a USD7.25m round for Zapia, an Uruguayan WhatsApp-based virtual assistant, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, Anthos Capital, Factory HQ and SNR.

▸ LEGALTECH | Headline led a ~USD6.2m round for doc9, a Brazilian internal management platform for legal teams that manages the internal routines of legal departments.

▸ DEBT | Ease Labs, a Brazilian developer of cannabis-based medicine, secured ~USD5.3m in venture debt from Itaú BBA. 

• Ease Labs raised ~USD5m in April 2024; MadFish led a ~USD2.4m round in June 2022. 
• DEBT Ease Labs raised ~USD3m in venture debt from Itaú BBA in May 2023.

▸ PANAMA | STIX and Accomplice led a USD5m round for Neutrl, a Panama-based DeFi protocol provider, from Amber Group, SCB Limited, Figment Capital and Nascent.

• Angels participating included Guy Young and Steven Shi (Ethena), Jez (izebel.eth) and Josh Lim (Arbelos Markets).

▸ Base10 Partners invested USD2.5m in diio, a Chilean virtual sales assistant. 

▸ HEALTHTECH | Atlantico led a ~USD2.5m round for Fin-X, a Brazilian surgical specialists team management platform, with participation from Headline and DOMO.VC.

▸ LOGISTICS | DGF led a ~USD2m round for Frota 162, a Brazilian fleet management platform. 

▸ NXTP and Gilgamesh Ventures led a ~USD1.8m round for Nuvia, a Brazilian sales management platform, with participation from 1616 Ventures, LASP Capital and a16z.

▸ CLIMATE | GovTech Fund, an investment vehicle managed by KPTL and Cedro Capital to fund government-focused solutions, led a ~USD1.3m round for i4sea, a Brazilian climate risk management platform, with participation from Polaris Investimentos. 

▸ HiPartners invested ~USD1m in Fintalk, a Brazilian AI agent for customer service. 

▸ HRTECH | Coalize, a Brazilian HRtech, raised ~USD560k from Urca Angels, Grão, Westwood Capital, Valora Ventures and Guilherme Bonifácio (iFood).

▸ HEALTHTECH | OurCrowd LATAM Labs led a USD300k round for Yeda Health, a Uruguayan diabetes and obesity tracking application. 

▸ EDTECH | Potencia Ventures invested ~USD260k in UpMat Educacional, a Brazilian academic olympiad startup. 

▸ 500 Global and Galileo Ventures invested in Bugster, a Colombian quality testing platform for software development. 

▸ Attom Capital invested in Galgo, a Chile-based motorcycle marketplace. 

• Attom was co-founded by Managing Partner Antonia Rojas. 

▸ BIOTECH | Corteva Catalyst invested in Puna Bio, an Argentine biotech that cultivates beneficial microbes for soil enrichment.

• One Ventures and Builders VC led a USD3.7m seed round in September 2022; SOSV invested previously.

▸ Stamina VC invested in Inbazz, a Brazilian influencer marketing platform. 

▸ Grana.ai, a Brazilian credit platform connecting institutional lenders with receivables registrars, raised an undisclosed round from SCAngels, DOMO.VC and WOW Aceleradora. 

▸ HEALTHTECH | Village Capital and Johnson & Johnson Foundation provided grants to Salva Health, a Colombian breast cancer detection startup; Sofya, a Brazilian administrative platform for hospitals; and Kintsu, a Brazilian health services management platform. 

▸ iFood invested in three Brazilian point-of-sale software startups: OPDV, 3S Checkout and Saipos. 

▸ Citi invested in Supra, a Colombian cross-border payments and treasury solutions platform.

▸ iThinkVC invested in Kaudal, a Peruvian task automation platform; Flipzen, a Uruguayan compliance management platform; Yavendió, a Peruvian virtual sales agent; Vasar, a Mexican hardware manufacturing platform and Parente AI, an Argentine platform for parents of children with behavioral challenges. 

▸ ALAYA Capital invested in Motai, a Colombian data platform for the motorcycle industry, PathPilot, a US-based virtual sales agent management platform, Motivia, a Brazilian company rewards platform and Harmony, a US-based consumer insights platform.

Funds

▸ Brazilian FINEP and Banco do Nordeste launched FIP Nordeste Capital Semente, an inaugural fund with a ~USD30m target to invest in early-stage startups in the northeastern region of Brazil through convertible notes and direct equity. 

▸ Entrypoint Ventures reached a ~USD8m final close to invest in early-stage startups in Brazil. 

• Entrypoint Ventures was co-founded by Rodrigo Terron (Rocketseat) and Paulo Braga (Grupo Boticario). 

▸ VC 2.0 | Thrive Capital launched Thrive Holdings, a permanent capital vehicle to invest in, acquire and operate businesses that are positioned to gain a strategic market advantage through AI in the long term. 

• Thrive Capital’s current AUM stands at ~USD25b. 
• Thrive’s LatAm portfolio includes Pipo Saude, Loft, Pitzi, Oppa and Practo. They invested in Nubank in 2019. 

▸ VC 2.0 | Coatue is raising a new vehicle available to individual investors with a minimum USD50k commitment.

• The fund already received USD1b in commitments from the family offices of Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell. 
• Other key distinct fund terms include a 1.25% management fee and 12.5% of the fund’s annual profits provided these exceed 5%.
• Phillip Laffont to WSJ: “It’s such an obvious idea that if I don’t do it, someone else will.”

M&As and Exits

▸ M&A | Cencosud acquired Vopero, an Uruguay-based clothing resale marketplace. 

• Cencosud Ventures led a USD4m round in November 2023; Grupo Axo and ThredUp invested in a USD7.5m round in 2021. 
• WOMEN-LED | Vopero was co-founded by Maggie Ferber; Paula Cagiao is the current CEO. 

▸ M&A | Marketing platform ActiveCampaign acquired Hilos, a Mexican WhatsApp-focused conversational marketing platform. 

• 500 Global, Lotus VC and YC invested in Hilos in 2022. 

▸ M&A | Visma, a Norwegian enterprise software company, acquired Lara AI, an Argentina- and Mexico-based employee management platform. 

• Lara AI raised a USD1.1m round from Newtopia VC,500 Global, FJ Labs, MrPink VC and Brazil Venture Capital in 2022. 

People and Programs

▸ COMETA partnered with Collective Academy to host Perspectives, a Mexico City-based summit to explore the latest on AI in Latin America on 14 May. Registration is now open. 

▸ ColCapital will host an online educational course focused on the fundamentals of VC as an asset class, as well as understanding venture risk and investment cycles. Class starts on 20 May. Registration is now open. 

▸ ABVCAP will host ABVCAP Experience 2025 on 10-11 June in São Paulo. Registration is now open. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Association. 

▸ Skandia and WAI (Women in Alternative Investments) will launch their second mentorship program with an intimate conversation with Monica Mandelli (KKR) on the role of women investors in the global alternatives industry in Bogota, Colombia on 5 June at 6:00 pm. Registration is now open.

Global Tech

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