Despite its status as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Peru has traditionally ranked lower than its Latin American counterparts in terms of the development of the venture capital ecosystem. In fact, until recently Peru had almost no country-dedicated VCs and between 2011-2015 consistently captured fewer venture investment dollars than Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, according to LAVCA Data. Where does Peru stand as of 2017, in terms of a mature VC ecosystem?

MESA 24/7 is a Peruvian startup that wants to revolutionize the way restaurants interact with their diners including online booking servicea, mobile payment, and analytics. In this interview with CEO Pedro Callirgos, we explored the evolution of the operation, the business opportunity, and the growth plans of MESA 24/7, which already raised half a million dollars through friends & family and angel investors. Interview in Spanish.

Intellibrand is a digital trade marketing platform that received a R$5m investment from DGF Ventures to fund international expansion. In this interview with LAVCA, Co-founder & Chief Commercial Officer Francesco Weiss talks about the digital marketing landscape in Brazil and Intellibrand’s expansion plans. Interview in Portuguese.

SpaceDat brings big data to agriculture with a drone enabled digital platform. Guillermo and his Co-founder & CEO, Cesar Urrutia, have 10+ years of experience in aerial imagery analysis and startup strategies, but agtech is underfunded in the region because the life cycle of the product is correlated to the life cycle of the crop.

Nibo is a fintech startup empowering small businesses to navigate Brazil’s complicated accounting and tax landscape. With 2,000 accountants on the platform, and integrations with over sixty major accounting software solutions in Brazil, Nibo raised a R$20m Series A from Swedish investor Vostok Emerging Finance, with participation from existing investors Redpoint eventures and Valor Capital, to scale their platform.

Suyo, a startup making it easier and more affordable for low-income families in Colombia to formalize their houses and land, recently received follow-on financing from Omidyar Network. In this interview with Suyo CEO Matt Alexander, we learn of the overwhelming size of the problem and opportunity.

LAVCA spoke with Dirk Donath, Managing Partner Latin America for L Catterton about the mid-market consumer sector opportunity in Latin America and the appetite from global LPs for a pan-regional fund. Earlier in 2017, L Catterton Latin America successfully closed on US$400+ million, exceeding its fundraising target.

Company: Mosyle Investors: DGF Investimentos   Mosyle is a Brazilian edtech startup with global ambitions to improve the classroom experience by using mobile devices that just raised an undisclosed round from DGF…

Company: Mercadoni Investors: Axon Partners, Grupo Pegasus   Mercadoni is a Colombian grocery delivery app that raised a US$6.2m investment from Axon Partners and Grupo Pegasus. In this interview with Mercadoni co-founder…

The global transport wars are heating up in Latin America with major investments from new Asian players. A few months after Chinese transportation giant Didi Chuxing announced a US$100m co-investment…

Company: Cornershop Investors: Accel Partners, ALLVP, Creandum, Endeavor Catalyst, Grupo Bimbo Family Office, Jackson Square Ventures   Queremos ser el mejor servicio de entrega a domicilio de groceries en las ciudades…

Company: Aflore Investors: Polymath Ventures, Fiinlab   Aflore is a startup that is leveraging a direct sales model to deliver financial products for the underbanked in Colombia. Aflore raised a Series…