Carabela Newsletter

Carabela Newsletter # 15 - May 27th to June 2nd Last week, 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. Besides Vercel’s, the main rounds raised were Madrid-based Ifeel - Humanising Growth’s USD 20m Series B, México City-based Félix’s USD 15.5m Series A, and Bogotá-based Loopay ’s USD 10m round. Other 7-digit rounds were raised in Spain, 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 Group 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 on the link below, and don't forget to subscribe! https://lnkd.in/ggzQf-Ne

Carabela Newsletter # 14 - May 13th to 19th Four large, 8-figure rounds were raised in Brazil, Spain and Mexico: Sao Paulo-based CRMBonus reached a USD 430m post-money valuation after raising USD 78m, Gerard Piqué Bernabéu’s Kings League Santander raised EUR 60m for international expansion, and Mexico City-based Aplazo and mattilda. raised a USD 45m Series B and USD 14m credit facility, respectively. There were several more 7-figure rounds, including Spain’s insurama EUR 8m Series A, Brazil’s Salvy (YC W24) USD 1.9m Seed extension, Mexico’s Worky USD 6m Series A, Colombia’s Magneto Empleos USD 7m Seed round or Chile’s Btrust USD 1.5m Seed round. Regarding Exits, in Spain Clubrural.com was acquired by Gramany’s Holidu, and Werfen acquired Hungary’s Omixon. None of the deals had its financial terms disclosed. In Uruguay, Inswitch was acquired by US-based TransNetwork LLC for an undisclosed amount, and Argentina’s clicOH acquired Chile’s Rayo Latam, also for an undisclosed amount. In other ecosystem news, the Chilean Government will invest USD 10m in the Campus Startups support initiative, and the Venezuelan Government banned cryptocurrency mining in the country. For more detail of these news (and more), click on the link below, and don't forget to subscribe! https://lnkd.in/g5CZV57g

Carabela Newsletter # 13 - May 6th to 12th The two largest Latin American tech companies made the news: Nubank due to announcing it had reached 100m customers, and Mercado Libre due to its more than USD 35m holdings of cryptocurrency. Large credit facilities were raised by companies in the region to expand their operations: Spain’s Matrix Renewables received a EUR 300m loan from Santander CIB, Miami-based Jeeves got USD 75m to finance its Latin American expansion, and Mexico’s Plata Card landed a USD 100m loan to help them reach 1 million customers. Regarding equity fundings, the largest rounds were raised by Spain’s Sesame HR (EUR 23m), Spain’s Soy LuzIA (EUR 17.7m), Colombia’s Bacu (USD 8.2m) and Mexico’s Naya Homes (USD 3.1m). In other news, Spain’s Freepik made its largest acquisition to date (Magnific AI), and Colombian food waste startup Oliver closed down after 3 years operating in the space. For more detail of these news (and more), click on the link below, and don't forget to subscribe! https://lnkd.in/g7u8fgsh

Carabela Newsletter # 12 - April 29th to May 5th It was a very active week in the Brazilian ecosystem, with 6 funding rounds above the USD 1m mark. Two of them were above the USD 10m mark: Indicium Tech’s USD 40m round and NG.CASH 11.8m round. Additionally, two acquisitions took place in the country: Méliuz bought a 19.4% stake in Zoppy, and Israel’s Travelier acquired DeÔnibus. Other substantial rounds were raised in Mexico (Eden’s USD 7.9m and Pet's Table's USD 6.7m rounds), Spain (Medicsen EUR 5m raise in Grants), and Chile (Reuse USD 4.5m round). In other ecosystem news, Costa Rican VC firm Caricaco plans to invest USD 100k checks in 10 Central American startups in 2024, and consulting company KPMG Colombia plans to launch this week the 2024 edition of the Colombia Tech Report, a deep dive into the country’s startup ecosystem. To dive deeper into these news (and more) check the link below, and don't forget to subscribe! https://lnkd.in/dQpRmD8a

Carabela Newsletter # 11 - April 22nd to 28th Most of last week's biggest news are funding related. The most prominent ones were PLD Space’s EUR 78m round in Spain, Merama’s USD 80m loan in Mexico, Vixtra’s USD 36m in Brazil and #AlignedLayer’s USD 20m Series A in Argentina. Special mention to the Series B extension of QI Tech for an undisclosed amount. There were also single digit rounds in Spain (indigitall and Nuela), Brazil (Ecotrace and Greg), Chile (Fintoc and Movener), Ecuador (DoctorOne) and Uruguay (Data4Sales). In the M&A space, there were three deals, all in the Spanish market: Repsol acquired 40% of Genia Bioenergy, Unnax acquired by Powens, and iArchiva acquired by Zucchetti Spain. For more detail of these news (and more), continue reading in the link below, and don't forget to subscribe! https://lnkd.in/gcd8GF5H

Carabela Newsletter # 9 - April 8th to 14th Very interesting news from Latin America’s tech giants were announced: Rappi hired it’s first official CFO (Tiago Azevedo) to prepare for an IPO, and Nubank received regulator approval to launch a new telecommunications company in Brazil, in partnership with Claro Brasil. Also, Nu Colombia received a USD 150m to grow its business in the country. Two double-digit funding rounds were raised by Spanish startups, including Factorial’s EUR 74.5m round and Onum’s USD 20m Series A. In Latin America, the largest rounds were raised by Brazil’s Akad Seguros (USD 22.5m Series A) and Instacarro.com (USD 10.9m). Colombia’s Habi got a USD 30m loan from the IFC - International Finance Corporation. Smaller rounds were also raised in Brazil (goFlux’s USD 6m and Investidores.vc’s 500k), Spain (TaxDown’s EUR 5m, Exoticca’s EUR 4m, Nymiz’s EUR 2.8m, Kokoro Kids’ EUR 2.25m and Vidext’s EUR 2m), Colombia (Dapta’s USD 1.2m) and Chile (Fraccional’s USD 1m). There was also one major acquisition in Iberian tech: Amadeus bought biometrics company Vision-Box, an AMADEUS company for EUR 320m. For other ecosystem news, Endeavor Chile launched a scale up acceleration program with 20 startups, and Revolut received approval to constitute as a bank in Mexico. For more startup and venture capital news in Ibero-American markets, follow the link below, and don't forget to subscribe! https://lnkd.in/ggg7dkTv

Carabela Newsletter # 8 - April 1st to 7th Last week, the biggest story in the region’s ecosystem was the filing for bankruptcy of Chile’s 4th largest Telecommunications operator, WOM Chile after failing to refinance its debts. The week’s largest raises came from Spain (Aticco Workspaces’s EUR 10m venture round), Brazil (Koin’s debt facility of USD 7.3m) and Mexico (Pulpos’ USD 4m Seed round). Three other multi-million dollar rounds were raised, all from Brazil: Lexter.ai’s USD 3.15m Series A, Inner AI’s USD 2m Pre-Seed and IZI App’s USD 2m round. Smaller rounds were also raised by startups in Chile, Brazil and Spain. In the M&A space, only one transaction was recorded, the acquisition of Uruguay’s OlaCar by Chile’s Lolocar, for an undisclosed amount. For more detail of these news (and more), continue reading in the link in comments!

Carabela Newsletter # 7 - March 25th to 31st On the week of Easter, we saw 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.ai and HubLocal, Chile’s ComunidadFeliz.com, 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 B3 Brazil Stock Exchange announcement that it will introduce the negotiation of Bitcoin futures in mid-April, Startup Chile kicking off a new edition with more than 50 participants, and the announcement of major investments by Latin American tech companies to strengthen its solutions: Mercado Libre’s USD 380m in Colombia and Rappi’s USD 110m in Mexico. For more detail of these news (and more), continue reading in the link in comments!

Carabela Newsletter # 6 - March 18th to 24th Last week 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 Health (EUR 7m Series A) and Chile’s Copilot Money (USD 6m). There were also some interesting exits last week: Farmacia Fracción’s IPO in Santiago through CORFO | Chilean Economic Development Agency’s @Scalex program for a USD 4.3m valuation, Colombia’s WeKall acquisition of Mexico’s Sirenna AI (Acquired) AI, and the acquisition by a group of strategic investors of Mexico’s Goli 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 in the link below: https://lnkd.in/gAs3J8Jg

Carabela Newsletter # 5 - March 11th to 17th The week from March 11th to 17th saw the biggest story coming from the M&A space, with Spain’s Amadeus acquisition of Voxel for EUR 113m. Also in Spain, Bain & Company acquired PiperLab for an undisclosed amount, and Colombia’s Cloudblue Services was acquired by Nespon Solutions, in a deal in which specific details were also undisclosed. In funding, the biggest raises were from Brazil’s M4E Lithium’s USD 7.5m round and Spain’s Ability Pharmaceuticals, SA’s EUR 7m round. In Mexico, Grupago and Niko Energy raised their Seed rounds, for USD 4.3m and USD 3.3m, respectively. Other rounds above the million mark were Portugal’s Vawlt (EUR 2.15m), Spain’s Utópika Labs (EUR 1.5m) and Chile’s Airnguru.com (USD 1m). In other ecosystem news, Estebanell launched its Corporate Venturing vehicle ERIA, and IDB Lab and Fundación Incofin Investment Management will finance Agritech projects with USD 85k in selected Latin American countries. Find more detail for these news (and more) in the link below: https://lnkd.in/gyReDDab