Village Capital invested US$75k each in the winners of its 2018 Fintech Latam Program: Vexi, a Mexican credit card app for millennials, and Siembro, an Argentine fintech platform for agrobusiness.

Goldman Sachs led a US$34m investment in Ualá, an Argentine mobile banking app, with participation from monashees, Ribbit Capital, Jefferies Group LLC, Cohen’s Point72 Ventures and Soros’s family office. 

MercadoLibre acquired Machinalis, a startup applying machine learning to product recommendation. Machinalis emerged from the math & computation department at la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC).

Puerto Asís made an undisclosed investment in Argentina’s uSound, a manufacturer of solutions to improve hearing for people with limited resources.

The Ministry of Production of the Nation of Argentina collaborated with the National Insurance Superintendent, ARCAP, ASEA and the insurance sector to allow Argentine insurance companies to invest in startups. Now according to the Instituciones de Capital Emprendedor (ICEs) insurance companies can invest up to 1% in entrepreneurial capital funds, in addition to previously approved capital commitments to other private capital sectors (including PPPs, infrastructure, and real estate).

Mercado Libre’s MELI Fund, and Agrega Partners made a US$3m investment in Argentine fintech Increase, with participation of existing investors including Arfintech and Lucens Capital.

Elevar Equity, Omidyar Network, and The Rise Fund announced an undisclosed Series A investment in Grupo VI-DA, an Argentinean digital literacy and education company.  The investment was through Grupo VI-DA’s early stage co-investment partnership with Elevar.

Dalus Capital led a US$3m Series A investment in Sirena, an Argentine mobile sales solution, with participation from NXTPLabs and unnamed local funds.  (Press Release) Mexico City, Mexico (June 27, 2018)…

OLX, a global classifieds marketplace backed by Naspers, and Properati, a real-estate marketplace with operations across Latin America, will merge its operations in Argentina and 13 other countries in the region. Properati will continue to operate independently in Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Previous venture capital investors in Properati include NXTP Labs and NEVEQ.

Riverwood Capital made an undisclosed investment in Chilean SaaS Nubox. This is Riverwood Capital’s second investment in the Chilean firm. Nubox recently acquired Argentinean SaaS Colppy as part of its regional expansion.