Bloomberg Línea — In a busy week for the startups and venture capital ecosystem, with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a source of financing for startups, , two fledgling Latin American companies received investments: Argentina’s Michroma and Brazil’s Barte.
Michroma
Argentine biotechnology startup Michroma raised $6.4 million in the largest seed round in value in Latin America, an investment with which it seeks to scale and expand hiring in the country and in the US.
The round was led by Supply Change Capital, a fund focused on foodtech venture capital and backed by 301 INC, the corporate venture capital unit of General Mills.
New investors also participated, including Be8 Ventures, which has capital from Dr. Oetker, and CJ CheilJedang, a $23-billion Korean conglomerate and a leading global supplier of fermentation-generated bioproducts, Michroma said in a statement.
The startup, founded in 2019 by Ricardo Cassini (CEO) and Mauricio Braia (CSO), focuses on developing technology to design and create natural colorings and flavourings based on mushrooms and without petroleum derivatives, as currently much food contains ingredients made with products that are potentially harmful to health.
Barte
Barte, a Brazilian B2B payments fintech, raised 16 million reais (around $3 million) in a seed round led by Argentine fund NXTP and Force Over Mass, in addition to reinvestment from funds that had already contributed to the company, which has already captured 22 million reais ($4.21 million) in investments.
This was the first investment by British fund Force Over Mass in Brazil.
Barte, which launched six months ago, was founded by Portuguese Caetano Lacerda and Brazilian Raphael Dyxklay.
The company offers cash-flow management products and access to credit for small and medium-sized companies.
The funds will be used to expand the business, product, and to structure a new credit vehicle, which will be launched this year.