Bloomberg Línea — According to data from Carta, a company that offers capital management and capitalization solutions for private companies, comparing the first quarter of 2023 with the same period in 2021 for Carta’s (US-based) startups, only 4% of invested capital went to seed-stage startups in the first three months of 2021, while in the first quarter of this year, 14% of the investments were for seed-stage.
Series A funding saw a similar percentage jump, from 17% to 29% in the same period. Meanwhile, Series D funding dropped from 13% to less than 5%.
Regarding valuations, seed-stage valuations increased nearly 40% in the first three months of 2023 compared to the first quarter of 2021. Series A valuations remained almost the same as in the first quarter of 2021, but the series D median valuation halved. However, fewer rounds were completed at all stages, according to Carta.
Latin American startups raised $245 million in March, a 78% decrease compared to the same period last year and the lowest value since July 2020. There were only 62 rounds in March, a 47% decrease compared to the same month of last year, and the second lowest number since May 2020. Only February had a worse performance in terms of number of transactions, according to data from Sling Hub. The average round size was $4.8 million, a 56% decrease compared to the same period last year. In other words, investments were smaller, with seed-stage receiving the most investments, with 17 in the month of March.
If it’s tough for founders, it’s also tough for venture capital managers, according to data from the Venture Monitor report by PitchBook in partnership with NVCA. US-based venture capital funds raised $11.7 billion in 99 funds in 2023.
These are the Latin American companies that raised funding this week:
Instaleap
Colombian company Instaleap, which offers e-commerce and logistics solutions for supermarkets and pharmacies, raised $5 million in a Series A round led by Redwood Ventures, Pegasus, and Eduardo Castro-Wright, former CEO of Walmart.
Founded in 2019 by Portuguese entrepreneur Antonio Nunes, Instaleap is a software-as-a-service platform that helps businesses operate online sales channels and manage deliveries.
The company operates a logistics platform intended to offer real-time data and delivery status. Instaleap is present in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Central American countries.
Instaleap’s clients include Walmart, 7-Eleven, Walgreens, Grupo Éxito, Falabella, Zaffari, Mambo, CSD, Oba Hortifruti, Plurix, among others.
Speedio
Brazilian startup Speedio, which provides data for automating the lead generation process for sales teams, raised 3.6 million reais ($720,000), in a round led by ACE, a venture capital holding, which invested 1.3 million reais; TM3 Capital, which also invested 1.3 million reais, as well as investments from Select Portfolio, the investment pool of Venture Hub, which contributed 500,000 reais, and angel investment from influencer Marcelo Baratella, who also invested half a million reais.
Founded in 2018, the startup claims to have over a thousand active clients, such as OLX, Mills Estruturas, Accesstage Tecnologia, SENAI, SESI, and Nutriplan. The platform aims to achieve a revenue of approximately R$ 15 million in 2023.
