Happy Sunday!
By now, we’ve all heard about NFTs, the metaverse, tokens, blockchain, web 3.0...
We are also hearing about many crypto companies raising funds recently. As mentioned last week, crypto is one of the central themes for 2022 – and it is expected to receive +2x the amount of VC capital flow.
Well, after this week – I guess it is safe to say that this will be the case. While looking back on my notes today on what I found interesting during this past week– I noticed I had selected 6 news on the theme... Thought then it was worth mentioning in the intro.
From Itau Unibanco CVC investing in Liqi to the local stock exchange B3 announcing its own launch of crypto products due to the high interest of investors, here are the news I found relevant on this topic (in a somewhat chronological order):
- Recent survey showed that Brazilians invested USD10bn in crypto in 2021.
- Another survey by Chainalysis showed that worldwide illicit transactions only represented 0.15% of the total amount of crypto transactions in 2021 – still the greatest of all times (USD 23.7) – but keep in mind that the market in general is growing fast.
- Liqi, Brazilian tokenization platform, announced its Series A of BRL 27.5mm led by Itau Unibanco CVC.
- 2TM, holding that controls Mercado Bitcoin, acquired a majority stake of Criptoloja, crypto exchanged based out of Lisbon – showing the brazilian company’s intention of going global in the short term.
- Gavea Marketplace, digital blockchain-based Commodities Exchange, announced a Series A of BRL 23mm led by Astella.
- B3 Plans Cryptocurrency-Related Launches In 2022
Anxious to see this market going forward!
Now – let’s go ahead to the week’s news…
Please bear in mind that these are strictly my opinion, based on my background and personal interests. Feel free to share this newsletter with anyone who might be interested – to subscribe, just click on the link below!
New in: Hurb hires former 3G Felipe Hallot as the new CFO; Descomplica hires Rodrigo Tostes, former VP of finance from soccer Team Flamengo as their new CFO.
My take: Both companies have enough scale to go public - new hires reflects companies’ intention to strengthen their C-Level staff prior to possible IPOs.
PagSeguro announced today the appointment of Alexandre Magnani (the company’s current COO) as its co-CEO. The current CEO, Ricardo Dutra, will stay on as co-CEO for a “certain period” to support Mr. Magnani.
Prudential, through its venture capital PruVen created in late 2020, has been evaluating 3 startups linked to innovation in the areas of insurance, asset management, healthcare, financial services in the regions. Expected check size: USD5mm-10mm.
TOTVS announced that its subsidiary Dimensa acquired InovaMind, a startup focused on AI based on big data, for BRL 23.5 million. Through data analysis and machine learning, InovaMind creates digital products and services for onboarding, identity validation, background checks and risk management for companies of all sizes. The company had a annualized gross revenue of approximately BRL 11 million in 4Q21.
Startup accelerator Y Combinator that it has updated its terms, providing participating companies with more total cash. The group will now invest USD500k in batch startups. The money comes in two different forms: i) USD125k for 7% of accelerated startups (no news here); ii) USD375k in the form of an uncapped SAFE note — a simple agreement for future equity — with a “most favored nation” clause.
Brazilian Central Bank announced that PIX reached another historical all time high in daily transactions last friday: ~53 million transactions in one single day. Previous record was in 12/20 with ~52 million transactions.
SoftBank leads USD 40mm round in TerraMagna, a brazilian fintech for Farmers. This marks SoftBank’s first agriculture-related investment.
My take: Agribusiness is one of the biggest sectos in Brazil, accounting for 9% of total employment in the country. One of the main problems yet to be solved is the access of farmers to capital and financial products since the space is not digitized and given that collections on a forclosed farm tend to take 5-7 years, therefore lenders are wary of taking the risk. Big opporunity here as TerraMagna comes to slove this problem.
Brazilian sportstech Rei do Pitaco raises USD 32mm in a round led by D1 Capital Partners and Kaszek.
Movile, a holding company whose main investment is iFood, announced an investment of USD17 mmin a55, which provides credit for technology companies that have recurring revenue. With that, the Company added a third fintech to its portfolio, which already has Zoop and MovilePay.
Itau Unibanco intends to launch an unprecedented service in the Brazilian market: the sharing of electric cars, which is already in the testing phase with employees. “Vec Itaú” (acronym for shared electric vehicle), follows the same logic as the already established bicycle-sharing service. The driver will pick up the electric car at one station and return it at another, paying for the period used, which can be in minutes or hours.
What am I reading?
CB Insights 2021 State of Venture report
TL;DR: LatAm Trends: page 256; Brazil page 270
What did I listen/watch?
Café com Investidor 57 (Neofeed): Gabriela Gonçalvez, Brasil Venture Debt partner (portuguese speakers only)
Quote of the week:
“Things don’t change, we change”— Henry David Thoreau