Bloomberg Línea — Despite a 5% increase in the amount invested in Latin American startups in third quarter compared to second quarter, totaling $2 billion, according to a report by TheVentureCity, a global venture fund for early-stage companies, in November, the amount declined in November, according to Transactional Track Record (TTR).
According to TTR, the number of transactions fell 5% to 977 venture capital financings in Latin America at the end of November.
In a more challenging year for VC investment, in which investors have reduced the multiples paid on the valuation of tech companies compared to what was seen in the last two years, one of the world’s largest venture capital firms, Andreessen Horowitz, has published a report saying which sectors are likely to take off next year.
The Silicon Valley manager cited everything from entertainment gaming franchises, and precision drug delivery to small modular reactors for artificial intelligence (AI) application payloads, among others.
For now, the sectors that raised rounds this week in Latin America were healthcare, software, agribusiness, and telecom:
Welbe
Welbe, a Mexican startup that offers companies an occupational medicine and comprehensive health platform for their employees, raised an 100-million-peso ($5 million) round led by Volpe Capital and Nazca, with SVLC, Kortex and GreenRock also participating.
This is also the first investment by Brazilian Volpe Capital, Kortex, and GreenRock in the Mexican market, with the latter two funds specializing in healthcare technology investments.
The capital injection will help the healthcare technology company consolidate its presence in the Mexican market and strengthen its data technology.
Wellbe offers a B2B solution that benefits employees. Since its founding in January 2022, the platform has raised $7.1 million.
Kuona
Kuona, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, closed a $6 million seed round led by COMETA, which included participation from Seaya Cathay Latam and FEMSA Ventures.
The capital will be used to expand Kuona’s presence and team in key geographic areas including Latin America, Europe, and the United States.
The Monterrey, Mexico-based company was founded in 2017 by Chema Sanroman and Agustín Magaña, who combine decades of experience in data science, AI and consumer product revenue and price management.
Cowmed
Agribusiness startup Cowmed received 5.9 million reais ($1.11 million) in an equity crowdfunding round through the Captable platform. The company uses technology to monitor livestock and detect behavioral changes in animals, identifying diseases, among other conditions. The information is detected by AI linked to the animals’ collars. With the technology, the company intends to increase the productive efficiency of farms by 25%.
Today, the company monitors around 35,000 cows in 400 farms in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Canada, and the United States.
Inklo
Inklo, a Brazilian fintech that wants to democratize access to credit for surgeries and medical procedures, received 1.5 million reais in a pre-seed round. The company, which started operations two months ago, intends to use the money to acquire new technologies and hiring.
Nomo
Brazilian startup Nomo received R$1.5 million ($282,311) in an extension of the 15-million-reais seed funding from the Iporanga fund. The startup was created by Henrique Garrido, who has experience at the fintech startup Stone. Now, with Nomo, the idea is that the company will be a digital telecommunications operator, operating with the antennas of a Vivo representative.
The round also saw the participation of Nextel’s former CEO, Roberto Rittes, among other executives.
