Rappi raises a monster funding round, Sequoia writes about the LatAm startup scene, and the story of Culqi from founding to exit

Funding news 💸

• Rappi raises a monster $500M round at a $5.25B valuation
• Argentinian crypto exchange, Buenbit raises a $11M series A
• Mexican orthodontics startup, Moons raises $9M to continue expansion
• Argentina's VU Security raises $11.76M to secure identities and prevent fraud
• Yummy raises $4M, aiming to be the 'super-app' for Venezuela

Other funding: Plerk, SiembraCo, Cleanlight, U-Planner, Pura Mente

Startup news 💡

• Colombian startup Cubbo to expand to Mexico and Brazil to become the largest Ecommerce distributor in LatAm
• Tül, the Colombian online hardware store, arrives in Mexico
• A list of the 100 most innovative EdTech companies in LatAm has been released by Holoniq
• Meet the 37 startups selected by MassChallenge Mexico
• 90 startups selected for the next generation of Start-Up Chile

Startup profiles: Kuick

Investor & Accelerator news 🚀

• Softbank prepares $5B for investing in Latin American startups, doubling it's previous allocation
• Estimates of between $6B-$9B invested in Latin American startups in the first half of 2021. Either way, it's a record level of funding.
• ALLVP launches an "Operator Network" inviting Angel investors and operators to co-invest in their deals

Mergers and acquisitions 🤝

• Mexican fintech startup Credijusto has acquired a regulated bank: Banco Finterra

Interesting reads 🤓

• Sequoia reflects on the Latin American startup opportunity
• How MercadoLibre is changing the way Latin Americans shop and pay
• Endeavour writes a retrospective of Mexico's Entrepreneurial Tech Ecosystem
• ALLVP Twitter thread on the rise of Latin America's versions of the Paypal mafia - Groupon, Rappi, Domicilios, Linio
  

Listen/Watch 🎧

• (ES) The history of Culqi, from founding to exit
• (ES) Cristian Patiño on how to bootstrap and scale a startup to millions in sales
• (ES) Courtney McColgan from Runa talks about being a non-technical solo founder and fundraising
• (ES) Eduardo Paulsen of Mexican eyewear startup Ben & Frank shares his perspective on retail and e-commerce in Latin America.