:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bloomberglinea/S3JIUNCZKJDU5LZOVQ6L2SMYEU.jpg "Three Mexican startups are among the companies in Latin America that received funding rounds this week.")
Bloomberg Línea — Although the total amount of venture capital investment in Latin America has dropped 19% compared to the first half of last year, according to data from the Latin American Private Equity Investment Association (LAVCA), startups in the region continue to receive funding rounds.
Investments announced in the region this week include the healthtech, foodtech, and fintech sectors.
Cuéntame
Mexican startup Cuéntame raised a pre-seed round of $1.1 million led by Impacta VC and included the participation of Colectivo Jaguara, 99 Startups, Fondation Botnar, Pareto20, Ulua VC, Incisive and Investo, as well as angel investors such as Kavak cofounder Loreanne García, Raúl Arguelles, a former Walmart human resources director, and Adriana Tortajada, director of the 1200 VC fund.
The healthtech founded by Regina Athié aims to avoid employees suffering burnout and increase their engagement with the company they are employed at.
B4waste
Brazilian foodtech b4waste received a two-million-reais (around $400,000) injection in a funding round led by Latin American impact fund GLOCAL.
The startup connects companies with food that is nearing its expiration date and sold at half price.
With the investment, the company will expand its operations throughout Brazil to cover the entire national territory by 2023. Today, b4waste operates in the cities of São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, and Rio de Janeiro, entering the latter city in August, and says it has been growing at an average of 40% per month.
Magis5
Brazilian startup Magis5 raised 10 million reais ($1.94 million) in a seed round led by US fund Parceiro Ventures with participation from Bossa Nova, Urca and Hangar. The company currently employs a team of 70, and with this financing round expects to double that number.
The company is a hub of integration and automation for marketplaces and says it is growing 10% a month, and in the first six months of this year equalled last year’s full-year revenues. The company has surpassed nine million ads published in 5,000 marketplaces, and aims to move more than 4 billion reais ($775 million).
Credix
Credix, a blockchain-based platform that connects institutional investors with loan originators in emerging markets, has received a 60-million-reais ($11.6 million) Series A round, co-led by US multi-billion dollar Motive Partners and ParaFi Capital, with the participation of Valor Capital, Victory Park Capital, MGG Investment Group, Circle Ventures, Abra, Fuse Capital, Claure Group, the family office of Marcelo Claure, and private investor Ricardo Villela Marino (the president of Itaú Latin America).
With the money, the company intends to advance technology to build a global credit infrastructure, invest in hiring new talent and explore strategic opportunities with institutional investors and borrowers.
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bloomberglinea/4GIRWGYHYRBYFBCS2MOFCR5FTY.jpg "Former SoftBank COO Marcelo Claure Invests in Credix’s Series A")
Draftea
Mexican fantasy sports platform Draftea has raised $20 million, bringing the total amount raised to over $37 million since its inception.
Fantasy sports are online games in which users assemble a virtual team of real players and earn points based on statistics from real matches.
In this latest investment round, Cristiano Ronaldo joined as an investor alongside other major globally recognized athletes, funds, and artists such as Travis Kelce, Odell Beckham Jr, Iker Casillas, Pau Gasol, César Azpilicueta, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s 35V, in addition to NNS Advisors , Quantum Pacific Ventures, Jay Z’s RocNation, Mantis VC of The Chainsmokers, and NFLPA.
The investment was led by StepStone Group and previous high-profile international round funds such as Kaszek, Sequoia Capital, Bullpen Capital and Courtside Ventures.
Along with the investment, the company launched a new product in partnership with the NFL and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA).
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bloomberglinea/FC5PAJR2ZFEVLJJFAQYSR4M77M.jpg "Investor ‘Dream Team’ Backs Mexican Fantasy Sports Startup Draftea")
Haro
Haro, a Mexican startup classified as ‘FinWealthTech’, raised $1 million from angel investors in Monterrey, the city where the company was launched.
The goal of the salary-demand company is for formal workers to have access to tools that bring them closer to financial health by providing employees with immediate access to their already-worked salary.
The capital raised will be used to fund workers’ retirement, continue to close deals, expand the value proposition to include financial health products through free personalized advice, strengthen the digital onboarding strategy for new users and begin regional expansion, according to Haro’s CEO Gabriel González.
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