Bloomberg Línea — Welcome to the rounds of the week. Some startups are defying the venture capital crisis, derived from the tumble in shares of large technology companies, with startups such as Bankme, Medu Protection, Menta and Efinti, which this week announced that they have closed early stage rounds.
Venture capital experts had already warned that investors will be more cautious and bet only on the best business models, and as the weeks go by it can be seen that investment rounds are taking longer to fall.
This is not just a perception, as the drop in venturecapital investments is supported by data. As reported by Bloomberg Línea in August, Latin American private equity investment association LAVCA said there has been a 19.4% plunge in venture capital investments in the region in the first half of this year, as the first six months of 2022 saw $5.4 billion invested, versus $6.7 billion in the same period of 2021.
Transactional Track Record (TTR) estimates indicate that $2.42 billion was invested as of the second quarter of 2022 versus $5.35 billion invested in the same period of 2021, which was a record year for investment in the region, a drop of 54.7%.
The capital invested may be smaller, but more selective, and is being invested in startups whose business models have real opportunities to scale.
These are the startups that raised capital in Latin America this week:
Menta
The Argentine fintech has built an infrastructure that allows any company with a wide network of businesses to offer its own payment collection solution tailored to its needs. It recently closed a $1.7 million pre-seed round, capital that it will use to expand into Mexico, before later disembarking in other Latin American countries, thus consolidating its regional growth.
Menta aims to achieve financial inclusion for all businesses, empowering B2B companies.
Bankme
Brazilian fintech Bankme has raised 5.5 million reais ($1.05 million) in a round led by DOMO Invest. Bankme enables companies to provide cheaper and more accessible credit to their customers.
MEDU Protection
Founded by Mexican Tamara Chayo, the startup, which aims to reduce contamination left by medical waste, which has increased after the Covid-19 pandemic, closed a $4 million round led by MaC Venture Capital.
Among the company’s products are medical garments made from its bespoke durable fabric.
Efinti
Efinti is a tool for small and medium-sized companies to access digital financing options, and which this week closed a $1 million round with the participation of Inversiones Andamas; some angel investors; the CEO of Blumer, Ernesto Ruiz; one of the co-founders of Cobru, Franco Niebles and Acelera Latam.
Efinti was founded in 2019 by Colombian entrepreneurs Andrés Tobón and Alejandra Gaviria, who plan to expand their service to those SMEs that, due to their short period in the market, find it more difficult to access capital via traditional methods.