MEMBER PROFILE

IGNIA

LAVCA recently spoke with Christine Kenna, Partner at IGNIA, about the firm’s evolution from Mexico’s first impact-focused VC fund to a key player in cross-border venture investing across Latin America.

Deals

▸ monashees and Connect Ventures led a USD40m Series A for Music.ai, a Brazilian AI-enabled music production platform, with participation from Samsung Next, Pelion, Mindset Ventures and angels Steve Aoki, 3LAU and Alexander23, and follow-on from Kickstart, Toba Capital and Valutia.

• monashees and KickStart Fund led a USD8.65m round in August 2022.

▸ HEALTHTECH | Alice, a Brazilian corporate insurance operator, raised a ~USD22m Series C+  with follow-on from KASZEK, Canary, ThornTree Capital Partners and Globo Ventures.

• SoftBank led a USD127m Series C in December 2021; Alice raised ~USD33m in February 2021. 

▸ Itaú Unibanco led a USD18m round for NeoSpace, a Brazilian developer of AI models for the financial sector, with participation from Micky Malka (Ribbit Capital), Martin Escobari (General Atlantic), Nigel Morris (QED) and Hans Morris (NYCA).

▸ CARS | Turbi, a Brazilian car rental platform, raised a ~USD12.5m Series D from undisclosed investors. 

• DOMO VC led a ~USD8.7m round in April 2024; ARC Capital led a ~USD30.5m round in January; EXT Capital led a ~USD16.5m round in July 2023.
• DEBT | Turbi secured a ~USD21m loan facility from ARC Capital, Jive Investments, Augme, Capitânia, EXT Capital, Fator and Western in November 2022 

▸ Bridge One invested ~USD12m in Involves, a Brazilian trade marketing software platform.

• Bridge One invested USD5.5m in February 2020. 

▸ Itaú Unibanco led an undisclosed Series A+ for Kanastra, a Brazil-based capital markets infrastructure startup, with follow-on from KASZEK, Valor Capital Group, Quona Capital, Atlantico, Actyus and QED Investors.

• KASZEK led a ~USD21m Series A in June 2024; Valor Capital Group and Quona Capital co-led a USD13m seed round in June 2023.

▸ INSURTECH | Split Risk, a Brazilian digital insurance startup, raised ~USD8.7m from HSR Soluções e Participações and La Barca Empreendimentos.

▸ CLIMATE | QED Investors led a USD8m round for Niko Energy, a Mexican solar energy startup, with participation from Picus Capital and 468 Capital.

▸ Quona Capital and Upload Ventures led a ~USD6m seed round for Neofin, a Brazilian corporate debt collection platform. 

▸ 5x Capital, a Peru-based investment firm focused on B2B SaaS startups, acquired a majority stake in Intelligential, a Mexican digital service enabler for financial institutions. 

▸ Caveo, a Brazilian financial management platform for doctors, raised ~USD3.5m from ONEVC, Norte Ventures, Kortex and Zenda Ventures.

▸ MAYA Capital led a USD3.5m seed round for Tempo, a Brazilian personal assistant service, with participation from Norte Ventures. 

▸ Banca.me, a Chilean consumer microcredit platform, raised a USD3m equity and debt round from undisclosed investors. 

• Hero Capital led a USD1.2m equity and debt round in July 2022.

▸ Headline invested ~USD2.6m in Cycles Nutrition, a Brazilian nutritional supplements startup. 

▸ Beauty for All (B4A), a Brazilian beauty startup, raised USD2.5m from 4Equity Media Ventures and undisclosed angels. 

▸ Grupo Felni led a USD1m seed round for Drivana, a Mexico-based car rental platform, with participation from Movtech Capital, Nut VC, Ferter VC, RC Ventures, Arkangeles and undisclosed angels. 

▸ HEALTHTECH | Motivia, an Argentine app for chronic disease management, raised USD1m from undisclosed investors. 

▸ Taxflow, a US-based tax-filing platform, raised USD750k from Platanus Ventures, BFF, Brian Requarth (Latitud) and Brian York (Lighthouse).

• Taxflow was founded by Colombians Felipe Salinas and Julián Arango.

▸ PROPTECH | Outscape, a Chilean tiny-home rental startup, raised USD600k from SDK and undisclosed investors. 

▸ BVC led a ~USD240k round for Octágora, a Brazilian remote virtual assistance startup, with participation from DOMO.VC and WOW Aceleradora.

▸ Caribbean Venture Capital Fund invested in Doorstep, a Jamaican online delivery service. 

▸ Equity Fund Group invested in Clube do Presidente, a Brazilian e-commerce solutions platform.

M&As and Exits

▸ MOBILITY | Moove, an Africa-based mobility startup backed by Uber that offers vehicle financing to ride-hailing drivers, acquired Kovi, a Brazilian rental car platform for on-demand drivers.

• Valor Capital Group and Prosus Ventures led a USD104m Series B for Kovi in August 2021. Other Investors included monashees, GFC, Norte Ventures, MAYA Capital, PIPO and Globo Ventures. 
• Moove began with 76 cars in Nigeria in 2020 and has grown to 36k in six continents, per co-CEO Ladi Delano. 
• Moove recently launched operations in Mexico and Colombia. 

▸ EXIT | SoftBank completed its full exit from WeWork Brasil through the sale of its remaining 49% stake to WeWork Companies, the global holding of the provider of shared workspaces. 

▸ M&A | Involves, a Brazilian trade marketing software platform, acquired Datamind, a Chilean data intelligence platform for the retail markets. 

• • Involves raised ~USD5m from Brazilian investor Bridge One in 2020.
  • Datamind was fully bootstrapped.

Funds

▸ LP | IDB Invest made a USD5m commitment to Mundi Ventures LatAm Fund I, the Latin America-dedicated vehicle of Spanish VC Mundi Ventures that seeks to invest in regional startups developing solutions to address financial protection challenges.

• The Spanish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (AECID) and COFIDE previously committed ~USD26m to the fund. 
• Mundi Ventures’ portfolio in Latin America includes Sami, Olé Life and Betterfly

▸ LP | Minerva made an undisclosed commitment to Upload Ventures’s growth fund. 

• Internet service provider TIM anchored the fund with USD50m in 2023. 
• Upload’s investments from its growth equity fund include Topsort, Simetrik and Tractian. 

▸ CVC | Colombian Grupo Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM) completed the lifecycle of Ventures EPM I, its inaugural CVC fund.

• Fund performance highlights: 2.9x DPI, 16% Gross IRR, 7 exits. 
• The fund invested in 12 startups and half of them were Colombian: Playvox, ERCO Energy, Telemetrik, Leal, Kaptar and RIC. 
• General Partner Felipe Zarate on key learnings: “First, our investment strategy with a 50%-50% split between first checks and follow-ons was key to our results given we had robust reserves for the best assets in the portfolio. Having a solid network of co-investors in Latin America was key and we dedicated genuine efforts to surrounding ourselves with like-minded investors, resulting in 25 co-investors that diversified the smart capital on the table. Third, exits in Latin America remain the hardest challenge for GPs and LPs – a process that can take up to two years to reach completion.”

▸ FOODTECH | Global foodtech investor Lever VC reached a USD50m first close for its second flagship fund to invest in agtech startups developing disruptive solutions for food production and distribution. 

• Lever’s investments from its second fund already include Gavan Technologies, Oobli, Flox AI and HerdDogg.

People and Programs

▸ Latitud relaunched its 8-week fellowship with a USD25k check for every fellow admitted into the program. Interested candidates are welcome to apply before 17 February. 

▸ RAISE Global will host the inaugural edition of RAISE LATAM 2025 in Costa Rica on 21 March. GPs can apply to attend; LPs can request an invitation. 

▸ Antler is now accepting applications for its 10-week 2025 entrepreneur residency in São Paulo, starting February. 

• The residency is designed for individuals at the early stages of their founder journey, from those without a clear business idea to those with an MVP.
• Interested (future) founders are welcome to apply.

Global Tech

▸ Sign up for GPCA’s Global Tech Brief, a monthly newsletter that covers tech activity in Asia, Latin America, Africa, CEE and the Middle East.