Reflecting on LAVCA Week 2024

Thanks to LAVCA Members and the broader tech investor community for joining us for another year of quality conversations and meaningful relationships. 

Save the date for LAVCA Week 2025 taking place on 6-9 October 2025 in New York City. We look forward to hosting you again!

Deals

▸ BOND led a ~USD146m Series C for Asaas, a Brazil-based payment management platform, with participation from SoftBank, Endeavor Catalyst and 23S Capital.

• Asaas raised a ~USD30m Series B+ in June 2023; Inovabra led a ~USD7.5m round in October 2020.

▸ Warburg Pincus acquired a minority stake in Contabilizei, a Brazilian accounting automation platform, for USD125m. 

• EXIT | The deal included a secondary piece that provided an exit for KASZEK.
• SoftBank led a ~USD63m Series C in 2022 and an undisclosed round in 2021. Point72 invested in 2019. 

▸ DEBT | Mexican challenger bank albo secured a USD60m credit line from SixPoint Capital. 

• US-based Morpheus Ventures led a USD40m Series C in 2023 with participation from NAZCA.

▸ AGTECH | Creation Investments and Syngenta Group Ventures led a USD53m Series C for Agrolend, a Brazilian unsecured credit platform for small crop farmers, with participation from Vivo Ventures, L4 and Japanese bank Norinchukin, and follow-on from Valor Capital Group, SP Ventures, Lightrock and Yara Growth Ventures.

• Valor Capital Group led a USD14m Series A in January 2022.

▸ LAST MILE | General Atlantic led a USD50m round for Jüsto, a Mexican grocery delivery platform.

• DEBT | Jüsto also secured a USD20m debt facility from HSBC.
• General Atlantic led a USD152m Series B in April 2022; General Atlantic led a USD65m Series A in February 2021; Bimbo Ventures and Sweet Capital led a USD5m round in October 2020.

▸ DEBT | ExcelCredit, a Colombia-based credit platform, secured USD50m in debt financing from Nomura.

▸ KASZEK led a USD32.6m Series A for CXC (aka Tecnologia en Cuentas por Cobrar), a Mexico-based credit platform, with participation from Quona Capital, Mercado Libre, Daedalus Ventures, Saison Capital, and Actyus.

• DEBT |  Alloy Capital provided a debt facility to CXC in 2023. 

▸ The IFC led a ~USD13.5 round for BHub, a Brazilian accounting and financial management platform for SMEs, with participation from Latitud, and follow-on from monashees and Valor Capital Group.

• Moore Capital led a ~USD8m Series A+ in September 2022; monashees and Valor Capital Group led a USD20m Series A in January 2022.

▸ BIOTECH | Sistema.bio, a Mexico-based biogas producer, raised USD15m in equity and debt from ElectriFI, EDFI Management Company, Chroma Impact, KawiSafi, AXA, Blink CV and EcoEnterprises Fund. 

• DEBT | BIX Capital and Shell Foundation provided the debt piece of the round. 
• DILA Capital invested in the company’s USD12m round in 2019. 

▸ CROSSBORDER | AlleyCorp led a USD8m Series A for Barte, a Brazilian B2B online payments platform for SMEs, with follow-on from NXTP, VentureFriends and Force Over Mass Capital.

• Force Over Mass Capital and NXTP led a ~USD3.2m round in March 2023

▸ HEALTHTECH | Left Lane Capital led a USD7.3m Series A for Koltin, a Mexican telehealth platform for older adults.

• US-based early-stage investors Mucker Capital led a USD2.8m round in October 2023.

▸ HRTECH | SRM Ventures invested ~USD5.5m in Gibb, an on-demand payroll startup. Propel VC led a USD4.3m seed round for Akua, a Latin American payments platform, with participation from Plug and Play, HTwenty, RallyCap, Flourish Ventures and ICventures.

▸ HEALTHTECH | Headline Ventures led a ~USD3.1m round for Horuss AI, a Brazilian health plan management platform. 

▸ EDTECH | Eduvem, a Brazilian digital education platform, raised ~USD2.6m from undisclosed investors. 

▸ HRTECH | DGF Investimentos invested ~USD2.5m in Sólides, a Brazilian talent management platform.

• Warburg Pincus invested USD100m in February 2022.

▸ BIOTECH | Zentynel Frontier Investments led a USD2.5m seed round for Xeptiva Therapeutics, an Uruguayan biotechnology company focused on treating chronic pain in pets, with participation from iThink VC, FEN Ventures, ND Latam, Uruguay Biotech Ventures and Sergio Fogel (dLocal).

▸ Monitor App, a Mexico-based industrial solutions platform, raised a USD2m Series A from Madata LLC, Grupo Cementos Chihuahua, Flō Networks, Novamex, CEAS Investments, Alfa Indigo Ventures and Ferter.

▸ ABSeed led a USD2m round for Tuna Pagamentos, a Brazilian online payments provider.

▸ ONEVC and 17Sigma led a USD1.1m round for Patagon AI, an Argentina-based marketing platform. 

▸ AGTECH | ALIVE Ventures led an undisclosed Series A for GoodSAM, a US-based producer of regenerative consumer products in Colombia and other emerging economies, with participation from Desert Bloom Foods and Connecticut Innovations. 

▸ Karrot, a Colombia-based point-of-sale software for SMEs, raised USD1m from Marathon Ventures, Amador Holdings and Kuiper VC. 

▸ PROPTECH | Morada.ai, a Brazilian AI-based real estate agent, raised ~USD1m from undisclosed investors. 

▸ QED Investors invested ~USD900k in Noodle, a Brazilian royalty management and financing platform for artists and digital creators. 

▸ CROSSBORDER | Flipando AI, an Uruguay-based cross-border compliance startup, raised USD600k from iThink VC, Nido VC, Worthit VC and undisclosed angels. 

▸ LEGALTECH | Vinci Ventures led a ~USD500k pre-seed round for Intelijus, a Brazilian AI-based legal agent.

▸ Stamina VC led a USD460k seed round for MeetRox, a Brazilian CRM solutions software, with participation from Alta Escala, Raio Capital, João Del Valle (EBANX), Tiago Dalvi (Olist) and Alessio Silva Alionço (Pipefy). 

▸ DOMO.VC led a ~USD350k round for TRAG, an agricultural insurance platform and a ~USD265k pre-seed round for Mentora, a Brazilian leadership development platform, with participation from Guilherme Bonifácio and Eduardo Baer (iFood).

▸ CLEANTECH | CIRCCLO, an Argentina-based circular economy startup, raised a USD210k pre-seed round from Antom.la and undisclosed investors. 

▸ Finaktiva, a Colombian credit and factoring platform for SMEs, secured a debt facility from AlphaMundi Group. 

• ALIVE led a USD3m round in August 2021. 

▸ HiPartners invested in Nexaas, a Brazil-based omnichannel platform. 

▸ EXIT | KPTL exited Akmey, a Brazilian developer of enzyme-based techniques for textile production, through a sale to the Aragão family that founded the company in 2003. 

• KPTL invested in 2015; Akmey grew revenues 6x since then, according to Exame.

Funds

▸ General Catalyst is considering launching its first global continuation fund with a USD800m-1b target, per TechCrunch. 

• The mix of the fund is still to be determined. 
• General Catalyst’s recent investments in Latin America include Stori, Genial Care, TRACTIAN, Clara and Examedi. 

▸ Mexico-based VC Redwood Ventures partnered with emerging markets investor Seedstars to expand its global network and collaborate in investment opportunities.. 

• Redwood Ventures’ most recent investments include Solfium, Parco, smartBeemo and Boletomovil. 

▸ FOODTECH | Carozzi, a Chilean food processing company, launched a USD6m CVC fund to invest in foodtech, agtech and supply chain early-stage startups. 

▸ CVC | Montreal, a Brazilian biometrics and data center management platform, launched Montreal Ventures, a ~USD6m CVC fund to invest in local startups developing AI, fintech, govtech and cybersecurity products. 

▸ Thoma Bravo is hunting for enterprise software deals in Latin America, per Bloomberg. 

• An investment would represent Thoma Bravo’s debut in the region, according to LAVCA Data.

News

▸ CROSSBORDER | Foxconn, the world’s largest cellphone and electronics manufacturer based out of Taiwan, is building the largest factory for Nvidia AI servers in Mexico, according to its Chairman Young Liu.

• This move comes as part of Foxconn’s broader global supply chain diversification approach.
• Foxconn also acquired a majority stake in PCE Technology de Juarez, a Mexican consumer electronics manufacturer, for USD361m in 2022.

▸ FOODTECH | Chilean foodtech NotCo just entered the fragrance business through a partnership with Cramer, a Latin America-focused flavor and fragrance developer. 

• The NotCo Generative AI Fragrance Formulator – a fine-tuned model based on NotCo’s original model Giuseppe –  will enable fragrance discovery for brands and manufacturers. 

▸ REGULATION | The Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) issued a new ruling in which FIPS (Fundos de Investimento em Participacoes) must disclose the impact on shareholder control dynamics before making a new investment.

• The ruling also applies to funds considering new investments where they would receive less than 20% ownership in the entity. 

▸ AI | Glean, a US-based AI-driven workflow automation platform, partnered with Algorithia, a Mexican data science incubation and scaling platform part of media conglomerate Grupo Salinas.

• The partnership aims to enable Grupo Salinas’ 100k+ employees to access Glean workflow models.
• Glean just raised a USD260m Series E at a USD4.6b valuation led by Altimeter Capital and DST Global.

People and Programs

▸ NEXT WEEK | Join us during the 2024 ARCAP Investment Forum in Buenos Aires on October 29. Our Director of VC Carlos Ramos de la Vega will discuss the latest trends in LatAm venture alongside Rodrigo Baer (Upload Ventures), Susana Garcia-Robles (Capria Ventures), Joaquin Abal (DILA Capital) and Priscila Rodrigues (Crescera Capital). Register here. 

▸ AI | Brazilian VC Grão VC partnered with LAVCA, AWS, Stripe, Cubo, Mattos Filho and Machado Meyer to release its latest report on the impact of GenAI in Latin America. 

▸ Chilean VC Kayyak Ventures appointed Manuel Sescosse as its newest partner and head of the Mexico office.

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. 

LAVCA is now part of GPCA, the Global Private Capital Association, and will continue to operate as a parallel membership organization with its own dedicated team and board.