Carabela Newsletter #6
Addi raised USD 86m in equity and debt. dLocal is exploring potential acquisitions. South Summit closed its 3rd edition in Brazil with more than 20k attendees.
Welcome to this week’s 4 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 happy to have a chat!
The week from March 18th to 24th saw in Colombia Addi’s raise of USD 86m - USD 36m in equity and USD 50m in debt. Other sizeable funding events were three Series As raised by Miami-based Marco (USD 12m Series A), Portugal’s Uphill (EUR 7m Series A) and Chile’s Copilot Money (USD 6m).
📷 Credits: Addi
There were also some interesting exits last week: Farmacia Fracción’s IPO in Santiago through Corfo’s ScaleX program for a USD 4.3m valuation, Colombia’s WeKall acquisition of Mexico’s Sirenna AI, and the acquisition by a group of strategic investors of Mexico’s Golí Nutrition.
In other ecosystem news, the third edition of South Summit Brazil finalised in a success, with more than 23,500 attendees, and Uruguayan giant dLocal announced that it’s studying potential acquisition targets that allow the company to expand its services and geographies.
For more detail of these news (and more), continue reading:
Cross-border 🌎
Marco, a Miami-based startup providing working capital financing services to Latin American SMEs, raised a USD 12m Series A. The round was led by IDC Ventures. (FinSMEs)
WeKall, the Colombian Telecom startup, acquired Sirenna AI, a Mexican conversational intelligence platform. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. (Contxto)
Andes 🇧🇴 🇨🇴 🇪🇨 🇵🇪 🇻🇪
Colombian BNPL startup Addi raised USD 86m (USD 36m equity from Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and GIC Private Ltd + USD 50m debt from Goldman Sachs). The company plans to use the funds to continue its growth within Colombia. (Latam List)
Cono Sur 🇦🇷 🇨🇱 🇵🇾 🇺🇾
Chilean money tracker app Copilot Money raised a USD 6m Series A led by Adjacent, with plans of using the funds to accelerate their Web and Android efforts. (Startups Latam)
Chilean e-Pharmacy Farmacia Fracción debuted in the Santiago Stock Exchange via Corfo’s ScaleX program. It allowed the company to raise USD 1.7m at a USD 4.3m valuation. (Startups Latam)
Uruguayan Fintech giant dLocal is exploring potential acquisitions to expand its commercial distribution, services and geographical reach. (Contxto)
Brasil 🇧🇷
Brazilian AI platform Visio.ai raised a USD 2.5m Seed round led by DGF Investimentos. With the funds, the company will grow its presence in food franchises and retail stores in Brazil. (Latam List)
Brazilian bus ticket Marketplace Buson got acquired by Canada’s Busbud, in a transaction for an undisclosed amount. (Yahoo! Finance)
South Summit Brazil closed its third edition in Porto Alegre, with more than 23,500 attendees, amongst them 3,000 entrepreneurs, 800 speakers, and 900 investors with more than USD 200 billion in AuM. (El Español)
Iberia 🇵🇹 🇪🇸
Uphill, a Portuguese Healthcare startup, raised EUR 7m Series A led by Explorer, Redstone and EnjoyVenture. The company plans to use the funds to expand internationally its Copilot solution for doctors and nurses. (EU-Startups)
Spanish Logistics startup Imperia raised a EUR 3m round led by Samaipata to start its international expansion, having set its sights in in Europe and the Americas. (El Referente)
Spanish Foodtech Poseidona raised a EUR 1.1m Pre-Seed round led by Faber, to further develop its algae-based protein ingredients. (Vegconomist)
Filtroo, a Madrid-based startup that offers financial rewards for the use of social networking apps, raised a EUR 1m round to finance the technological advance of the platform, particularly in web3. (El Referente)
Spanish SaaS Imageryst, which is looking to democratise access to geospatial data, raised its first funding round for EUR 700k from national and international funds, as well as Enisa (EUR 200k). The company plans to expand nationally and internationally with the funds. (El Referente)
Spain’s EZ Telecom raised a EUR 500k Seed round led by Faraday Venture Partners to scale its mobile and fibre businesses in Spain. (Web Capital Riesgo)
Suma Capital, a Spanish responsible investment fund manager, acquired 80% of ATH Bioenergy, which produces and commercialises biomethane. The other 20% remains in the hands of the promoter, Tibanna AG. (Capital Riesgo)
México, Centroamérica y Caribe 🇨🇷 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇸🇻 🇬🇹 🇭🇳 🇲🇽 🇳🇮 🇵🇦 🇵🇷
Golí Nutrition, a Mexican nutrition startup with more than 5 million customers in its platform, was acquired by Grupo KPS, Bastion Capital, and one of Golí’s founders. The terms of the operation were not disclosed. (PR Newswire)
That’s it for today. I hope you all enjoyed this edition of the newsletter. Have a great week, and see you next Monday!
If you have any feedback, comments or just want to have a chat, please contact me at ghersf91@gmail.com or my LinkedIn profile, I’ll be glad to hear from you!