Happy Sunday!
An important milestone was reached this week - more specifically this past Wednesday. If you like the numbers game, coincidently, it was on 2-2-22 when the global unicorn club reacheed the 1000 mark. That’s correct, there are 1000 companies worth USD +1billion worldwide. In aggregate, they are worth close to USD 3.3T. What is interesting to me is the pace as to which the club increased. Last year only, we saw a 70% hike in the total number of unicorns.
Now, some curious stats:
· Region: US tops the list with 51% of the unicorns, followed by China (17%) and India (6%).
· Categories: Fintech (of course) is the largest – 1 out of 5 unicorns worldwide are fintechs, accounting for 21% of the total. Next in line, software and services (18%), then e-commerce & D2C (11%).
· Most valuable unicorn: Bytedance (USD 140bn) – China based owner of TikTok.
· Lastest LatAm Unicorn: Betterfly, Chilean insuretech that reached the milestone this week after a USD 125m Series C.
Finally, I wanted to point out that this week we saw the biggest round from a female founded startup in Latin America: Gupy, end-to-end HR platform that uses AI to identify good candidate profiles, raised USD92mm in a round led by Softbank and Riverwood. GO GIRLS!!
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!
Open insurance: Brazil has been an example and pioneer in certain aspects of Open Banking - Open Insurance follows the same trend. With the new regulation proposed by SUSEP, the Brazilian regulatory body that oversees the sector, the consumer will be the owner of his/her data - therefore (if the consumers agrees), other entities will be allowed to see such data and offer better products, thus fueling competition. In order to increase transparency, there will be a registration system that will centralize all insurance data, paving the way for open insurance.
Totvs announced after the market close the acquisition of Mobile2you by its subsidiary, Dimensa. Mobile2you develops tailor-made financial applications for companies wanting to enter the fintech market. The transaction terms include an upfront payment of BRL 26.9 million and an undisclosed earnout.
My take: Positive - the announced acquisition is the second for Dimensa in January; the first was InovaMind, on January 10. This confirms that the company’s inorganic growth strategy is in full speed. We should see more going forward.
Itau BBA together with Mandi Ventures, hosted a lunch to introduce agtech unicorn Farmers Business Network (FBN) to Brazilian investors. FBN allows farmers to anonymously share data about everything from seed performance to chemical pricing, harnessing the power of data science to help farmers make more informed decisions. The FBN Direct farm-commerce platform works with manufacturers to deliver substantially reduced input prices to members. In its latest round, company was valued at USD3.9bn in a Series G with participation of Fidelity and Blackrock. The company intends to start its Brazilian operation soon given the country’s relevance in agriculture.
Betterfly, the Chilean insurtech that uses data science and machine learning to automatically track and reward individual good habits with no-cost life insurance coverage and charitable donations, raised its Series C of USD 125 million. Round investors: DST Global, Glade Brook Capital, Greycroft, Lightrock, QED Investors.
My take: Given the regulatory scenario in Brazil (mentioned above), we will see even more insurtechs emerging and raising significant amounts of capital.
PlayKids, educational content business for children that encourages the development of children through literature technology and tools was acquired by British company Sandbox & Co. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Latitud launches app for LatAm Startups to raise global funds. While US based startups can form a corperation model in one week and raise an investment round - Brazilian peers might take more than one month to setup. To help out, Latitud Go will streamline the process in a cheaper and faster manner - providing offshore structure for startups and the necessary legal & tax documents.
180° Seguros, a São Paulo, Brazil-based insurance company for consuming and distributing insurance, raised $31.4 million in Series A funding led by 8VC and was joined by investors including Dragoneer, Monashees, Atlantico, Quartz, and Norte.
PagSeguro reported its 4Q21 operating highlights, which included the disclosure of three key indicators: acquiring TPV, consolidated TPV and number of PagBank’s active clients. Acquiring TPV was at BRL79 billion, up by 43% YoY (+48% ex-coronavoucher), while consolidated TPV stood at BRL147 billion, up 76% YoY. Finally, PagBank’s active user base reached as total of 13.1 million clients, an increase of 5.2 million YoY.
Digibee, no-code integration platform that allows its users to integrate its company's systems, raised its Series A of USD 25million with the following investors: G2D Investments, Kinea Investimentos, and SoftBank Latin America Fund.
Tiger Global Management, the New York–based hedge fund that made more private tech investments than any other firm last year, raised more than $11 billion for its latest venture capital fund as of January, according to a person familiar with the matter. The firm plans to close the fund, Private Investment Partners 15, in March with a total of $12 billion.
EBanx hires Paula Bellizia, seasoned executive who already worked at Microsoft, Google, Apple and Facebook, as Global Head of Payments.
My take: As mentioned previously in this newsletter, EBanx is clearly preparing for an IPO. The hire is a reflection of this.
PIX data leak: the Brazilian central bank reported that registration data linked to 2,112 Pix keys from LogBank were leaked. According to authorities, this was due to occasional failures in the systems of the fintech. Even though it is unquestionable that PIX is a huge success, this is the third major leak since its launch.
What am I reading?
CB Insights: State of Blockchain Report
FT Partners: The Race to the Super App
What did I listen/watch?
This week I had the opportunity of participating in Iugu’s podcast “Resenha B2B” - together with the fintech’s CEO and Quanto’s head of strategy - we disucssed Open Finance and its implications to society & financial institutions. For Portuguese speakers only - listen here.
What Got You There with Sean DeLaney: #284 Sebastian Mallaby - The Mindsets of Venture Capitals All-Time Greats (LINK)
Some fun: As mentioned before, I am a big fan of documentaries. Netflix’s Tindler Swindler is a must watch.
Quote of the week:
“Patience is the key to contentment.” The Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him)
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