Bloomberg Línea — Latin America funding came at $7.9 billion in 2022, marking a 62% drop related to 2021, according to CB Insights State of Venture 2022. Globally, venture funding reached $415.1 billion in 2022, a 35% decrease from 2021.
This week the pace of early-stage capital rounds has accelerated amid caution from venture capitalists.
In the face of a challenging macroeconomic scenario, early-stage startups are the least affected, according to investors and experts who have spoken to Bloomberg Línea. These startups will be resilient to a possible recession.
In terms of business models, beyond fintech, this week investors bet on collaborative economy and e-commerce, among others.
These are the startups that received capital in Latin America this week:
Rocketfy
The Colombian startup Rocketfy, which allows the creation of an online store, raised close to $2 million that will allow it to boost the e-commerce of more than 7,000 ventures, the company informed Bloomberg Línea Colombia.
The investment was backed by Chile Ventures and renowned angel investors. The resources will enable them to optimize the tools that support the online store, improve the payment system and improve the platform’s shipping service.
In 2022, 32 million virtual sales of different ventures were registered through its platform.
Scouter
Mexican startup Scouter closed a $250,000 investment round, led by a group of angel investors made up of: Otto, Walter Hartleben and Gustavo Murillo, with the aim of boosting its consolidation in the country, which includes projects in Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City.
The platform seeks that more users can capitalize their spaces to obtain extra income in a simple way, while contributing to audiovisual productions and special events have more options for their projects.
Mauricio Almeida, CEO and founder of Scouter explained in a press release that last year they raised $200,000 and this year it will be $250,000, so the coming months will be of great challenges.
Scanntech
Scanntech, a retail data intelligence and analytics technology company, received a $40 million (about $210 million) primary investment from Warburg Pincus, a global private equity manager, which joins IFC, Endeavor Catalyst and Hindiana as an investor.
Founded in 1992 in Uruguay, Scanntech accelerated its growth process in 2017 when it launched in Brazil a data technology. Currently, the company’s platform has more than 30,000 integrated shops and is present in more than 400 supermarket and big groceries chains in Brazil, including 17 of the 20 largest chains.
Dhama Chapital
Brazil’s broker Dhama Capital received R$ 500 million contribution from BTG Pactual bank. The investment bank will have a minority stake in the new asset management company, in a partnership to strengthen its operations in private credit.
According to Fabiana Moraes, founding partner of Dhama Capital, the idea of creating a management company is the result of the union of a team that has been working together for 15 years in analysis and structuring of credit products. “Our goal is to reach R$1 billion under management in the short term, almost half of which is already anchored”, she said.
KLYM
JPMorgan and IFC, the financial arm of the World Bank, led a $27 million investment round in KLYM, a Colombian fintech that provides working capital to small and medium-sized businesses in Latin America.
KLYM will use the capital to grow, with Brazil as its top priority in 2023. The company, formerly known as OmniLatam, also plans to expand in Colombia, Chile, and Mexico.
Parfin
Parfin, a Brazilian web3 infrastructure platform for the custody, trading, tokenization and secure management of digital assets has raised $15 million in a seed investment round led by Framework Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm focused on the digital assets market. Other participants in the round are L4 Venture Builder, an investment fund formed by B3, Brazil’s stock exchange - whose investment still depends on approval from local regulators, Valor Capital Group and Alexia Ventures.