Bloomberg Línea — Startups operating in the finance and healthcare sectors received investments in Latin America in recent days. The investments take place amid a challenging year so far for startups, with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, increased interest rates, deepening geopolitical tensions, and unforeseen events that have impacted investor sentiment in the first half of the year.
One of the highlights of the week’s funding rounds was VIPe, a company that offers consigned credit, receiving 110 million reais ($22.9 million) in a funding round in which participants included Airborne Ventures.
In a recent report on venture capital for the year 2023, analysts from PitchBook stated that valuations of seed-stage startups and the number of transactions will continue to grow - at least in the United States - reaching new annual highs, despite a slowdown in the investment amount.
These are the startups that received funding this week:
VIPe
Credit institution VIPe received 110 million reis in a round led by Airborne Ventures. The company, which has already secured 100 million reais in consigned credit for around 140,000 customers in Brazil, began operating in 2021 by offering consigned credit to the private sector. The startup also develops salary advance and consortium solutions and aims to enter the insurance products market.
The company is led by Fernando Ferraz, Caique Gallucci and Eduardo Kupper, who have experience in the financial and banking sectors.
Asaas
Brazilian startup Asaas received 100 million reais ($20.8 million) from current investors Bradesco Private Equity & Venture Capital, Parallax Ventures, Light Capital Group, Escala, and new funds such as TM3 Capital.
The fintech offers a digital account for companies and automates financial management processes, and currently has 120,000 businesses as clients.
The new funding will be used for regulatory purposes of the central bank, expanding within the regulatory requirements of payment institutions and direct credit society licenses.
According to the startup, Asaas operates positively and seeks to finance a significant part of its growth through its own cash generation. In 2020, Bradesco Private Equity & Venture Capital invested 37 million reais ($7.7 million) in Asaas.
Omni
Fernando Domingues, co-founder of Conexa Saúde, a Goldman Sachs investment, has launched a new startup called Omni and has already received 5 million reais ($1 million) in a round led by VEC Investments.
Omni is a healthtech company that offers a digital medication plan for companies. In other words, in addition to medical and dental agreements, companies will be able to provide a medication plan for their employees.
The investment involved the participation of entrepreneurs, doctors, and executives from the healthcare sector such as Arthur Farme (former CFO of SulAmérica), Roberto Botelho (president of the Adib Jatene Foundation), Mário Chady (Endeavor entrepreneur and co-founder of Grupo Trigo), Jorge Oliveira (Unimed Nacional and Amigo Pet), Massanori Shibata Jr (VP of Petz), Paulo Yoo (Einstein), and Celso Kiperman (Executive Chairman of A+Educação).
The company has Ricardo Soffner from Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking as its COO.
Beneficiaries of the healthtech’s plan will be able to collect their medications at any pharmacy in the country by purchasing them through Omni’s app, which is scheduled to be launched in the second half of 2023.