Valoreo raises $50M to scale ecommerce brands, Bitso acquires Quedex, and the story of shutting down Alana 😢

David Smyth

February 22, 2021

ℹ️ This is the second edition of a free weekly newsletter giving you a roundup of startup news in Latin America.

Funding news 💸

Valoreo raises $50M in the largest "seed" round in LatAm. Valoreo will acquire existing Latin American ecommerce companies and prepare them for scale
Softbank leads an $83M investment in Descomplica, a Brazilian edtech startup that has seen demand boom since the pandemic
Brazilian healthtech, Alice, raises $33M. Alice combines online healthcare and health insurance
Mundi raises $7.8M to help Mexican exporters shipping to the US
Brazilian digital wellness app, Zenklub raises $8.3M
Argentine logistics startup, Moova raises $3.6M to expand operations, with a focus on the Mexican market
Backstartup, a Colombian online marketplace for accountants, raises $1.2M

Other funding: Colektia, Treinta (YC W21), Kubbo, Neivor, Tractian, MediPreço, Digital Innovation One, TeamHub

MSbank aims to compete with Transferwise, launching Cloudbreak. This launch also caused Transferwise to suspend transfers from Brazil
Colombian private flights marketplace, Flapz has also begun operating in Chile
Argentine fintech, Nubi has partnered with eBay to help Argentinians sell overseas
Chilean logistics startup RockTruck announced revenue of $8M for 2020 and are closely eyeing entering new markets
Colombian digital shopping mall app, Loro rides the Ecommerce boom during the pandemic, generating $450k in revenue and over 300k monthly active users

Argentine startup accelerator, Yavu announced they are closing a $25M fund to invest up to $100k in over 250 LatAm startups
Brazilian early-stage VC, Maya Capital has launched a program to help connect entrepreneurs who are searching for a founding team

Mexican crypto startup Bitso acquires Quedex to offer more sophisticated crypto trading. Bitso can afford to splash the cash, having raised $62M.
Brazilian Locaweb acquires Dooca Commerce and fintech Credisfera for close to $5M each
TIVIT acquires Privally, a Brazilian cybersecurity startup
Brazilian business intelligence startup Cortex, acquires another BI startup, ITB360
Brazilian digital marketing startup Leadlovers got acquired by SaaS platform, Nuvuni

Ignacio Martinez writes about going from launching, to entering YCombinator, to shutting down his startup, Alana
Business Insider profiled Done Properly, the Chilean foodtech startup pioneering new technology to produce more sustainable food
Nasdaq.com makes their predictions for the LatAm startup landscape in 2021
Forbes Mexico talks to the founding team at 500 Startups LatAm about their journey to investing in 201 latino companies

(EN) Brian Requarth on The Pomp Podcast talks about all things startups in LatAm
(EN) Brynne McNulty Rojas, CEO of Habi, talks about launching her company and disrupting the real estate industry in Colombia
(EN) Simón Chamorro, CEO of Valiu (YC) on The Pomp Podcast talks about crypto in the developing world
(ES) Simón Chamorro, CEO of Valiu talks about his journey starting Valiu, raising a $5M round and crypto payments in Latam
(ES) Ricardo Weder on the Frye Show after raising $65M for his grocery delivery startup, Justo.

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