Bloomberg Línea — In a year during which funding for late-stage startups plummeted 92% in the third quarter compared to the same quarter in 2021, according to the Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America (LAVCA), early-stage Latin American startups received ‘Christmas gifts’ this week.
This week, Latin American biotech startups gathered in the US at the BioHunt event, led by Chile’s The Ganesha Lab in Miami, with investors excited about emerging biotech startups from South and Central America.
At the meeting attended by more than 100 players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, including experts, mentors, and angel investors from the United States and Latin America, it was said that the biotech industry would reach a value of $304 billion globally, and Latin America is the area that concentrates most of this market. Mexico, in particular, shows interest in growing in this sector.
Even with new companies emerging, it remains difficult to raise very high valuations, so the market is good for the pre-seed and seed stages, according to Markus Schreyer, CEO and founder of The Ganesha Lab.
“You need to go to the US, launch Series A looking for $30 million or $40 million at $100 million valuations,” he said.
These were the startups that raised funds this week:
Aviva
Aviva, a Mexican fintech, raised $2.2 million in a pre-seed round, one of the largest at this stage in Latin America in a difficult year to raise capital.
The round was led by Mexican fund Wollef, with participation from Argentinean fund Newtopia VC, Swiss fund and accelerator Seedstars International Ventures, 500 Startups, and Mexico’s Xtraordinary VP, as well as a dozen Latin American angel investors.
Aviva seeks to be a digital bank that caters to the base of the pyramid. This means that, unlike other banks in the market, the company does not seek already banked customers served by traditional banks, but those who do not yet have bank accounts, according to co-founder and general partner of Mexican fund Wollef Ventures, Cristóbal Perdomo.
Klubi
Brazilian financial services startup Klubi, a fintech authorized by the Central Bank to operate as a consortium administrator in Brazil, received 30 million reais ($5.85 million) in funding. Vivo Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of telecommunications company Vivo, participated in the round with a contribution of 10 million reais through the acquisition of debentures convertible into equity.
This is the second investment by Vivo Ventures, which launched eight months ago.
Klubi currently offers a car consortium. The startup’s founder Eduardo Rocha, investors Paulo Veras (founder of 99) and Guilherme Bonifácio (founder of iFood), as well as Igah Ventures and Cyrela partners, current investors of Klubi, accompanied the round.
Jusfy
Jusfy, a Brazilian legal startup, received a seed investment of 7 million reais ($1.36 million) from SaaSholic, Harvard Angels, Norte Ventures, and angel investors such as João Costa of KOVI, Victor Lazarte of Wildlife, Daniel Arbix, legal director of Google, Ricardo Goldfarb of Lojas Marisa, Alexandre Dubugras, co-founder of Alude, among others.
SaaSholic led the round, contributing around 500,000 reais.
Jusfy’s tool offers legal and financial resources to integrate lawyers and accountants.