There were 25 global investors making debut investments in Latin America in 2017, including notable deals by Softbank and Didi Chuxing, as well as new funds TheVentureCity and ONEVC.
New investors demonstrated an appetite for deals across sectors, stages (from seed to growth capital), and geographies, including Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Colombia.
NEW GLOBAL INVESTORS IN LATAM STARTUPS (2017):
| Accel-KKR | HackVC | Struck Capital |
| Blocktower Capital | Maple Ventures | Telstra Ventures |
| Boost VC | Meritech Capital Partners | TheVentureCity |
| Castor Ventures | NTT DoCoMo Ventures | The Rise Fund |
| Didi Chuxing | ONEVC | Travel Capitalist Ventures |
| Digital Finance Group (Huiyin Blockchain) | Point72 Ventures | Greyhound Capital |
| Early Impact Ventures | PointBreak | Rethink Education |
| FBG Capital | QMS Capital | |
| Green Visor Capital | Softbank* |
*Softbank previously raised a US$100m LatAm VC fund in 2000.
HIGHLIGHTED INVESTMENT TRANSACTIONS (2017)
💸 Softbank, Didi Chuxing, and Riverwood Capital invested US$200m in Brazilian rideshare app 99 in 2017. Didi then acquired 99 in 2018. Other investors in 99 include monashees+, Qualcomm Ventures, and Tiger Global.
💸 China-based Digital Finance Group (Huiyin Blockchain Ventures) led a US$1.9m Series A in Ripio (formerly BitPagos), with participation from existing investors Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, and Draper VC. Medici Ventures also made an undisclosed investment in Ripio. Blocktower Capital, FBG Capital, and Maple Ventures also participated in Ripio’s US$37m token pre-sale.
💸 TPG’s The Rise Fund made its inaugural investment in Latin America in Digital House, an Argentina-based coding school, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, Omidyar Network, and previous investor KaszeK Ventures. U2’s Bono also participated through his involvement in The Rise Fund.
💸 Accel-KKR made an undisclosed investment in Siigo, a Colombian enterprise software startup for SMEs.
💸 TheVentureCity launched a US$100m global VC fund, and invested in a number of startups in Brazil and Colombia, including 1DOC3, Hogaru, Levee, and RecargaPay.
💸 Silicon Valley-based ONEVC debuted a seed fund with investments in Rappi, BXBlue, Pipefy, and Docket.
💸 Sallfort Privatbank, MIT Castor Ventures Fund, FJ Labs, Rocketship, and Mercado Libre Fund made a US$15m investment in Trocafone, a Brazil-based online marketplace for used electronics.
💸 QED Investors led a US$7m Series A in ComparaGuru, a Mexican financial management platform for insurance and banking products, with participation from Seaya Ventures, Struck Capital, Nova Founders Capital, and Peter Thiel.
💸 Green Visor Capital in Silicon Valley led a US$2.2m investment in Tpaga, a Colombia-based mobile payment platform from the founders of Tappsi. Y Combinator invested US$120k in Tpaga 2017.
💸 Rethink Education and existing investors made a US$900k investment in Crehana, an edtech platform for creative professionals that was accelerated at Wayra Perú.
💸 Qatar’s Travel Capitalist Ventures invested US$600k in Voopter, a Brazilian meta-search travel engine, to expand the company’s travel services. Voopter raised an undisclosed Series A from Global Founders Capital, an investment arm of Rocket Capital, in 2014.
💸 monashees+, Accel Partners, QMS Capital, and Pointbreak LLC made an undisclosed investment in Brazilian enterprise software platform Neoway, followed by an undisclosed Series C investment by Temasek.
💸 Billionaire George Soros made an undisclosed investment in Argentina’s mobile bank Ualá, with participation from Point72 Ventures, and Bessemer Venture Partners.
💸 Meritech Capital Partners led a US$30m Series C in Auth0, an identity verification platform, with participation from NTT DoCoMo Ventures, Telstra Ventures, and previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, and K9 Ventures.
Investments took place during the period 2017 and include verified LAVCA Industry Data on fund manager transactions, as well as other investor types from public sources.
This information has been gathered from sources believed to be reliable and from secondary sources that were checked whenever possible, but its accuracy and completeness are not guaranteed. LAVCA shall not be responsible for any inaccuracy unintentionally included in this publication. Readers should consult and rely solely on their own advisers regarding all pertinent information, legal, and accounting issues.
*Investments include the following stages:
- Seed/Incubator: Startup capital for companies to incubate an idea into a company or product.
- Early Stage: Startup capital for companies.
- Expansion Stage: Capital for companies that have reached a sustainable level of development and may be shipping products.
- Growth Financing: Non-control equity investment in an existing company to finance growth strategy.
