Carabela Newsletter #7
Brazil's Stock Exchange to introduce negotiation of BTC futures. Leasy raised a USD 28m Series A. MercadoLibre will invest USD 380m in Colombia.
Welcome to this week’s 2 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!
Happy Easter! The week from March 25th to 31st saw slower activity on the funding side due to the fact most of the region had holidays on Thursday and Friday. Nevertheless, a couple of 8-digit rounds were raised: Perú’s Leasy raised a USD 28m Series A, and Portugal’s Tonic App raised a EUR 10.85m Series A. Besides these, there were sub-5m rounds raised by Brazil’s umgrauemeio, Advolve and Hublocal, Chile’s Comunidad Feliz, Portugal’s CargoFive and Mexico’s Taxo.
On investors news, Spain’s Inveready led the EUR 8m pre-Series A round of Denmark’s Scaleup Finance, and Chile’s CVC SQM Lithium Ventures invested GBP 1m in the UK’s Salinity Solutions. Other ecosystem news included the Brazil Stock Exchange announcement that it will introduce the negotiation of Bitcoin futures in mid-April, Startup Chile kicking off a new edition, and the announcement of major investments by Latin American tech companies to strengthen their solutions: MercadoLibre’s USD 380m in Colombia and Rappi’s USD 110m in Mexico.
📷 Credits: FIA Business School
For more detail of these news (and more), continue reading:
Cross-border 🌎
BID and PublicTechLab have launched a Govtech open innovation program to help 40 Govtech startups and scaleups from Latin America strengthen its capabilities. (Tekios)
Andes 🇧🇴 🇨🇴 🇪🇨 🇵🇪 🇻🇪
Peruvian Fintech Leasy raised a USD 28m Series A led by Magma Partners and the money will be destined to consolidate the company’s operations in the Mexican and Peruvian markets. (Forbes Perú)
MercadoLibre announced it will invest USD 380m in Colombia to improve its e-commerce and financial services solutions, as well as strengthening its logistical infrastructure in the country. (Revista P&M)
Cono Sur 🇦🇷 🇨🇱 🇵🇾 🇺🇾
Startup Chile kicks off a new edition of its acceleration program, which will count with the participation of 58 startups from 4 continents. (Tekios)
SQM Lithium Ventures, a Chilean CVC, invested GBP 1m in the UK’s Salinity Solutions, a startup looking to reduce the energy needed to clean water by 50%. The company will do a pilot in the Salar de Atacama. (Startups Latam)
Chile’s Proptech Comunidad Feliz raised USD 1m from BTG Pactual Chile to develop new products and reach their goal of reaching USD 10m ARR in 2024, 50% growth from the previous year. (Startups Latam)
Brasil 🇧🇷
The Brazil Stock Exchange (B3) announced that it will introduce the negotiation of Bitcoin futures contracts on April 17th, after receiving approval from the regulator. (Contxto)
Brazil’s umgrauemeio, a startup specialised in solutions to fight forest fires, raised its first Venture round for USD 3.7m. The company will destine the funds to improve its capabilities through AI. (LatamList)
Brazilian AI & ML startup for Digital Marketing Advolve raised a USD 1.5m Pre-Seed round led by Valor Capital and Lanx Capital. Proceeds from the round will be used to expand the company’s operations and team. (FinSMEs)
Brazilian SaaS startup HubLocal raised a USD 700k round led by Bossa Invest and GV Angels. The funds will be used to optimise cost and expand the geographical reach of the company. (LatamList)
Iberia 🇵🇹 🇪🇸
Portuguese Healthtech Tonic App raised a EUR 10.85m Series A led by BlueCrow Capital and Iberis Capital, to expand to large European markets, hire senior talent and invest in AI. (Tech EU)
CargoFive, a Portuguese startup innovating in the freight forwarding space, raised a EUR 2.5m round led by Indico Capital Partners and EIT Urban Mobility. The company plans to use the funds to continue developing its product and capabilities. (EU-Startups)
Spanish VC Inveready led the EUR 8m pre-Series A round of Denmark’s Scaleup Finance to further develop the company’s financial planning and analysis solutions. (Web Capital Riesgo)
México, Centroamérica y Caribe 🇨🇷 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇸🇻 🇬🇹 🇭🇳 🇲🇽 🇳🇮 🇵🇦 🇵🇷
Mexican Legaltech Taxo raised a USD 1.2m Pre-Seed round to automate tax returns. The company plans to grow its customer base by 160% in 2024, processing more than 200k tax returns. (Tekios)
Rappi will invest USD 110m in Mexico in 2024 to expand its Turbo technology in the country, its 10-minute delivery solution. (Insider Latam)
That’s it for today. I hope you 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!