Angel Ventures led an undisclosed investment in Decifra, a Mexican SaaS platform focused on geospacial analytics.

(Contxto) You know I’m no realtor but their mantra is usually true: location, location, location! Thankfully, our real estate friends aren’t the only ones looking out for the perfect spot. In fact, Descifra, a SaaS company specialized in geospatial analytics, has just announced an undisclosed funding round led by Angel Ventures México.

This venture fund, invested through its Pacific Alliance fund, and was accompanied in the Series A round by View Accelerator and its very own Angel Venture’s Peru fund.

Decipher our big data
Machine-learning, advanced analytics and big data are three of the elements Descifra uses to analyze the physical space of a business. This, in turn, outputs valuable insights regarding the operative and marketing potential of a particular location.

The result is that smart actors in a big chunk of the retail and hospitality industry would 1) save a lot of money by optimizing its location for foot traffic and demographics and 2) diminish failure rates by validating this data before inauguration.

With this, the company is able to measure a market’s potential, as well as boost strategic and growth decisions using predictive analytics algorithms. All this info, surprisingly enough, has a 95 percent confidence interval.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; machine learning will now be the norm, not the outlier.

Strategic expansion
Descifra, as a business itself, also needs to optimize for geo-expansion.

Angel Ventures, having multiple strategic offices throughout Latin America, including Colombia, Perú and Chile, provides a natural ally for the company—way beyond funding. This makes sense if you consider the use of proceeds will go mainly towards the expansion of the company throughout Latin America.

“We wanted expansion in Latam and the fact that Angel Ventures had a presence in Peru, Colombia, and Chile made a big difference to us. This was linked to the fact that we were not only looking for an investor, but also for an ally to reach our goals thanks to their large network of contacts, experience, and solidity,” added Roberto Wong, Co-founder of Descifra.

With 29 corporate clients and 674 users, producing over 21 daily forecasts, the startup is, allegedly, one of the first companies to create automated data processes with geographic information systems (GIS), and offering it as a user-friendly Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription.

According to Angel Venture’s Medium post, the company is capable of converting static data—such as socio-demographic stats—into dynamic data by incorporating mobility information. Now, take your time to read that again. But it truly makes sense.

“We love the equipment and the solution that Decodes brings to the market with impressive metrics, where practically 100% of the locations suggested to customers are still in operation years later. The geolocation is only the tip of the iceberg of what is coming in terms of the product roadmap,” said Hernán Fernández, Founding Partner of Angel Ventures.

Zurich Innovation Championship 2020
And it seems like the good news didn’t stop there for the company.

Since, as a matter of fact, Descifra will be the Mexican representative at the second edition of the Zurich Innovation Championship.

This is no small accomplishment, considering there were 1,358 candidates from 26 countries. When it comes to Mexico, out of the 30 submissions, only 8 became semifinalists, and ultimately Descifra took the big prize.

Seems like the retail industry is not the only one where Descifra’s fancy algorithms can provide value. Banking and insurance are also important sectors where it can successfully deploy its solution, and with the help of Zurich Insurance Group’s 150 years experience in the field, know-how is not a scarce resource.

-VC