Bloomberg Línea — Latin American startups operating in the car rental, edtech, and cryptocurrency sectors have received funding in recent days.
In the first six months of 2023, Brazil recorded 199 investment rounds, raising a total of $778.1 million, both figures showing a 50% decline compared to the previous year, according to data from innovation platform Distrito. The fintech sector led the volume with $185.9 million in first-half.
This week, one of the funding highlights was for Turbi, a digital car rental platform that received 80 million reais ($16 million).
These are the startups that received funding this week:
Turbi
Turbi EXT Capital, a venture capital fund created as a spin-off from DOMO Invest, announced a funding round of 80 million reais to expand the car fleet of Turbi, a digital car rental platform. “Investors, both in more mature startups and structured credit, have become much more selective, and the achievement of this round reflects the quality of the entrepreneurial team and Turbi itself in attracting many key players in the local market,” said Alberto Rossi, a co-founder of EXT Capital, in a statement.
Currently, Turbi has around 3,700 vehicles in circulation, and approximately 90% of the new funds will be used for vehicle purchases. Turbi aims to reach a fleet of 5,000 vehicles. In October 2022, EXT Capital nvested 15 million reais of the 105 million reais raised by Turbi through the capital markets.
Teachy
Teachy, a Brazilian edtech that uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) to assist elementary and secondary school teachers, received a pre-seed investment of 8 million reais (approximately $1.4 million), led by NXTP and with the participation of Roble Ventures.
Through AI, Teachy allows teachers to optimize tasks performed outside the classroom, such as preparing lessons with digital content, creating exercise lists with a few clicks, and automatically correcting questions, including open-ended ones. This way, the startup reduces up to 80% of the time teachers spend on these tasks outside the classroom.
Bipa
Brazilian startup Bipa received a seed funding round of 8 million reais (approximately $1.4 million), with the participation of significant investors in the crypto market, such as New Form Capital and Hivemind Ventures.
Bipa is the first investment of these venture capital funds in the Brazilian market. Founded by Brazilian Luiz Parreira in 2020, Bipa offers a digital account connected to PIX and Lightning Network (Bitcoin), with transactions starting from as low as one real.
The app aims to attract users who want to carry out Bitcoin transactions. “The use of Bitcoin is still extremely niche. We have already gained our space in the Brazilian community. Now is the time to expand our horizons and reach more people,” said Parreira in a press release.
