Carabela Newsletter # 15
Ualá fired 9% of its staff. Vercel raised USD 250m Series E. South Summit 204 to take place in Madrid.
Welcome to this week’s new subscribers! My name is Ghers Fisman, and I send the Carabela Newsletter every Monday to keep you updated with the most important stories in Venture Capital, Startups and Innovation in Ibero-American markets. If you’d like to get in touch, please send me a message to ghersf91@gmail.com or my LinkedIn profile. I’ll be more than happy to have a chat!
On the week from May 27th to June 2nd, some of the main news came from Argentinian unicorns: Ualá layed off 9% of its staff, and Vercel raised a Series E at a USD 3.25m valuation.
📷 Credits: Ualá
Besides Vercel’s, the main rounds raised were Madrid-based ifeel’s USD 20m Series B, México City-based Félix Pago’s USD 15.5m Series A, and Bogotá-based Loopay’s USD 10m round. Other 7-digit rounds were raised in Spin, Portugal, Brazil and Colombia. As for exits, Porto’s EZ4U was acquired by Oslo’s Link Mobility for EUR 3.5m, and Oslo’s Lokotech acquired a 66.6% stake in Madrid’s Powerpool Mining for an undisclosed amount.
In other news, StartupBlink published its global startup ecosystem rankings with 5 Latam cities and 3 Iberian cities in the global top-100, Nubank and Rappi were featured by Time Magazine on its list of the world’s 100 most influential companies, and South Summit will celebrate its 13th edition this week in Madrid.
For more detail of these news (and more), continue reading:
Cross border
🌎 Nubank and Rappi named as two of the world’s 100 most influential companies. They are the only Latin American companies that made the list. (Latam List)
🌎 StartupBlink published its annual rankings on startup ecosystems. Sao Paulo, Barcelona, Madrid, Mexico City and Bogotá are Iberoamerica’s top performers. (StartupBlink)
Iberia
🇪🇸 ifeel raised a USD 20m Series B led by FinTLV Ventures and Korelya Capital. The Mental Health startup plans to use the funds to expand its commercial capabilities in new and existing markets. (Techcrunch)
🇵🇹 Oscar raised EUR 6m Venture round led by Lince Capital and Indico Capital Partners. The delivery services startup is looking to consolidate its position in the Iberian Penindula. (Jornal de Negócios)
🇪🇸 Vytrus Biotech raised a EUR 2.3m Venture round led by Boyser. The company aims to expand its business with the proceeds of the round, mainly through inorganic growth and the introduction of new technologies. (Web Capital Riesgo)
🇪🇸 Banktrack raised a EUR 2m Seed round led by Kfund, 4 Founders Capital and LifeX. The capital will be used to add new functionalities to the company’s treasury management software, as well as growing the sales and customer services teams. (Tech.eu)
🇵🇹 Enterprise software startup EZ4U acquired by Oslo’s Link Mobility. The deal valued EZ4U at EUR 3.5m. (Euronext)
🇪🇸 A 66.6% stake of the blockchain services startup Powerpool Mining was acquired by Oslo’s Lokotech. The transaction is expected to close in 30 days, and the monetary terms of the deal were undisclosed. (Lokotech)
🇪🇸 Madrid gets ready for the 2024 edition of South Summit. It will be the 13th edition of the event, running from June 5th to 7th. (El Referente)
Brasil
🇧🇷 Accountify raised USD 6.5m Venture round from HDI and Redpoint. The funds are a part of a Series B, in which the Accounting software startup plans to raise up to USD 15m (Latam Fintech Hub)
México, Centroamérica y Caribe
🇲🇽 Félix Pago raised a USD 15.5m Series A led by Castle Island Ventures. The Fintech startup will use the funds to grow its operations in Latin America and the United States. (Contxto)
Andes
🇨🇴 Loopay raised USD 10m Venture round. The round will allow the Enterprise software startup to strengthen its operations in Colombia and Ecuador. (Latam Fintech Hub)
🇨🇴 El Dorado raised a USD 3m Seed round led by Coinbase Ventures and Multicoin Capital. The cryptocurrency startup will use the proceeds of the round to improve security features and grow its user base.(Latam List)
Cono Sur
🇦🇷 Ualá fired 140 employees. The lay offs (9% of the company’s personnel) come after the Fintech Unicorn’s recent investments across the region, which have duplicated several roles. (Contxto)
🇦🇷 Vercel raised a USD 250m Series E. The deal values the Enterprise software Unicorn at USD 3.25b, USD 750m more than its last round, in 2021.(Latam List)
That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed this edition of the newsletter. Have a great week, and see you next Monday!