Happy Sunday!
Busy week in venture capital and tech - many reports came out and also some important news (Marcelo Claure leaves Softbank - will he give up on LatAm?).
Anyways - will point out Pitchbook’s report on: Will Latin America's most valuable startups deliver the kinds of returns that investors have reaped in other developing markets?
I thought about the article and shared my thoughts with Ralphe Manzoni, Co-Founder of Newsfeed (one of the most important technology newsletters in LatAm). Finally, SãoPaulo (Brazil) also was pointed out as the best hubs for innovation. If you don’t know it, startups that are changing the paulistano’s daily life maybe found here.
The new seed, Series A and Series B benchmarks: how far have the standards shifted for early-stage startups when it comes to revenues? “The good news is that we have the data. The bad news is that it’s mostly what you expected – startups are raising larger, later rounds with less revenue than before.” Growth, it turned out, was the more surprising delta to examine. Take a look at the article - worth the read.
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!
Inventa, a Brazilian digital platform that connects more than 20,000 small and mid-sized retailers to nearly 400 suppliers ranging in categories such as cosmetics, decoration, and grocery, announced on BRL 115 million Series A round. The funding, which comes less than three months after the BRL 30 million Seed round, was led by Andreessen Horowitz – this would be its second investment in Brazil after proptech Loft – and Monashees.The funding round also included Founders Fund, Greenoaks, Greylock, Tiger Global, and the angel investors Hans Tung and Carlos Gracia, from Kavak, as well as existing investors such as Pear VC, NXTP, ONEVC, MAYA Capital, and Alter Global.
My take: Congrats Inventa, I am sure we will hear a lot about you in the upcoming years. It is only the beggining!!!!
Brazilian lender Creditas announced that it has raised $260 million in a Series F funding, that values the company at $4.8 billion. That’s up from the fintech’s $1.75 billion valuation at the time of its $255 million raise in December 2020. With the latest financing, São Paulo-based Creditas has now raised more than $829 million in funding over six rounds, with the bulk of that capital ($745 million) coming in over the last three years.
Notably, Fidelity Management & Research LLC led Creditas’s latest investment, which also included participation from other new investors Spanish fintech fund Actyus and Greentrail Capital. Existing backers also put money in the Series F round, including QED Investors, VEF, SoftBank Vision Fund 1, SoftBank Latin America Fund, Kaszek Ventures, Lightock, Headline, Wellington Management and Advent International, via affiliate Sunley House Capital.
My take: Creditas is one of those rare and refreshing startups that gives us a glimpse into their financials- In the third quarter of 2021, Creditas notched US$46.8 million in revenue – up 233% from $14 million in the 2020 third quarter. At the same time, as it has been investing in its growth, the company’s net loss widened to $14.8 million compared to $8.25 million. Founder and CEO Sergio Furio projects annualized revenue of about $200 million for 2021.
Neon acquired Santa Catarina-based Biorc in a transaction whose financial terms were not disclosed. Now, it will have the necessary licenses to offer more products and have new sources of funding. The bank already has 15 million customers, its revenue tripled last year and is expected to triple again this year.
Founded in 2009, Biorc focuses on private payroll, one of Neon's growth avenues, which in 2020 had already purchased fintech ConsigaMais+. Today, it serves more than 200,000 employees from large companies and unions across the country.
My take: Positive -Created in 2016, Neon Pagamentos suffered a setback in 2018, when the BC decreed the liquidation of Banco Neon (formerly Pottencial), due to serious violations of legal rules. The fintech - which did not commit any irregularities - ended up connecting to BV to continue operating. BV even acquired a stake in Neon, but it was diluted over time and today is quite a minority.
Take Blip — the startup that helps companies talk to their customers — has just bought Stilingue, adding a new product to its portfolio and increasing its recurring revenue by 15%. The transaction is part cash, part equity. The value was not revealed. The two companies have obvious complementarities: while Take Blip's tools allow brands to interact with their customers in private channels (on Whatsapp and Instagram DMs, for example), Stilingue operates in public interactions, such as news, comments on networks social media and app reviews.
“A giant called Marcelo Claure left SoftBank Group Corp. today. I still remember the day Andre Maciel and I met with Marcelo Claure and Shu Nyatta in a hotel in New York - I left the meeting thinking: "Is he for real?" And indeed he was.”
My take: Please read Paulo Passoni’s post - I am sure he knows much more than I do - and I do wish the best for Softbank and also Marcelo.
ClearSale, Brazilian B3 listed anti-fraud, announced the acquisition of ChargebackOps, a company specialized in chargeback disputes and management. The transaction terms include an upfront payment of USD 3.6 million and an earnout of USD 600 thousand linked to the performance of Chargeback Ops, implying an EV/sales of 3.6x (excluding earnout), versus a current trading multiple of 2.1x EV/sales 2022 for ClearSale.
My take: positive. Transaction is a solid move to support ClearSale’s international operations and improve profitability through: i) the attraction/maintenance of new clients – chargeback management is a heated market in the U.S. (with several players that include Sift Dispute Management, Chargebacks911, Midigator and credit card own brands) and a service not offered by ClearSale prior to the acquisition, which contributed to churn in the U.S. and hindered the attraction of new clients; ii) cross- and up-selling – in addition to offering cashback management services to its client base
Ualá in Colombia: The company started operations in the South American country because it sees a large market opportunity to digitize Colombians. About 87% of people still use cash as their main form of payment, according to Colombia’s central bank.
What am I reading?
CB Insights: 2022 Tech Trends Report
Scott Galloway: What Distinguishes Entrepreneurs from Liars
CB Insights: State Of Fintech
CB Insights: Retail Tech 2021
What did I listen/watch?
Neofeed: Rodrigo Baer - early stage Softbank
Quote of the week:
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” – Dwayne Johnson
If you want to be subscribed to this newsletter, click here!!!