Latin America

STARTUP HEATMAP
Insights from LAVCA’s 2018 Startup Directory
& LAVCA VC Investment Data
1H2018 was a record-breaking semester for
VC investment in Latin American startups
$1,200 $1,141
1H2017: US$476m
$1,000 across 90 deals
Amount (US$ Million)

249*
$800 $780

$594
$600 $526 $500
145*
$425
$400 $371
182*
186* 197*
$200
119*
$143 111*
69*
$0
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 1H2018

*#Deals
Market Breakdown of Startup Investment (2017-1H2018)
COLOMBIA
MEXICO 23 startup investments
82 startup investments US$188m invested
US$154m invested

Mexico is the 2nd most active market

by #deals; 55 deals were Series A+, BRAZIL
indicating a maturing market 201 startup investments
US$1.4b invested

Brazil leads the region across all stages

PERU of VC investment, capturing 73% of VC
8 startup investments Investment dollars
US$12m invested

CHILE
44 startup investments
US$35m invested ARGENTINA
27 startup investments
US$110m invested
Sector Spotlight
Fintech is the #1 sector of VC investment by dollars and #deals in Latin America,
with US$540m invested across 94 deals in the last 18 months:
✓ Argentina: 30% of VC deals
✓ Brazil: 22% of VC deals
✓ Chile: 18% of VC deals
✓ Colombia: 17% of VC deals
✓ Mexico: 29% of VC deals
✓ Peru: 63% of VC deals

Marketplaces are the #2 sector of investment by dollars with US$304m invested

across 27 deals in the last 18 months:
✓ The majority of investment dollars for marketplaces in this period went to Rappi, Colombia’s first
unicorn, with 2 rounds from DST Global, Delivery Hero, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital &
others
✓ Notable rounds in marketplaces: Afluenta, Aliada, Apli, InstaCarro, Trocafone & Netshoes

The Logistics & Distribution and Transportation sectors continue to capture late
stage investments with US$398m combined across 12 deals in the last 18 months:
✓ SoftBank made its second investment in Latin America in Loggi (US$100m), after investing in
rideshare startup 99 in 2017
Sectors to Watch
In 2016, LAVCA flagged agtech, edtech, and healthtech as sectors to watch. Investment in
these sectors more than doubled in 2017.

AGTECH = US$57m invested in the last 18 months

Agrosmart, BovControl, S4, Tbit, Aegro, Agrofy, Grão Direto

BIOTECH/HEALTHTECH = US$16m invested in the last 18 months

Dr. Consulta*, 1Doc3, eDoc Saude, Nimblr, Clínica SIM

EDTECH = US$67m invested in the last 18 months

Digital House*, Kinedu, Me Salva!, Descomplica

*Top 10 Investment Deal for 2017 (by transaction size)

Highlighted Startup Transactions (2017-2018YTD)
Marketplace/e-commerce Fintech

Exits
Strategic Sale
(Walmart)

Strategic Sale
(Falabella)

SaaS
Highlighted Startup Transactions (2017-2018YTD)
Transportation/Logistics Edtech

Agtech

Exit
Strategic Sale
(Didi Chuxing)

Healthtech
Proptech

© 2018 LAVCA Industry Data

Unicorns

Brazil-born rideshare giant 99 was acquired by Didi Chuxing in Jan. 2018 at a valuation over
US$1b

Brazilian payments company PagSeguro raised US$2.7b in a NYSE IPO in Jan 2018

Brazilian fintech Nubank raised over US$400m in 2018 at valuations of US$2b+ and US$4b+

Colombian last-mile delivery service Rappi raised US$385m+ over two rounds in 2018, the latter at a unicorn valuation

Brazilian learning systems provider Arco Educação IPO’ed on the Nasdaq in Oct. 2018 and was valued at over US$1b by
the end of the first day

Digital Reality and Brookfield Infrastructure acquired a controlling stake in Brazilian data center/IT provider Ascenty at a
valuation over US$1.8b

Brazilian fintech startup Stone Pagamentos IPO’d on the Nasdaq in Oct. 2018 and was valued at US$8.7b by
the end of the first day
Mega Transactions* (2017-2018YTD)
Colombian last-mile delivery startup Rappi raised US$185m and then US$220m from Delivery Hero, DST Global, Sequoia Capital,
Andreessen Horowitz, monashees, and others

Brazilian fintech Nubank raised US$150m and then US$180m from DST Global, Tencent and others

Movile raised a fresh US$124m round of financing for iFood, led by Naspers, with participation from Innova Capital, after raising US$135m
in 2017

Yellow, a Brazilian dockless bike-sharing and e-scooter service, launched with a US$63m Series A from GGV Capital, monashees, Grishin
Robotics and others

Brazilian trucking platform CargoX raised US$60m from The Blackstone Group and Hudson Structured Capital Management

Brazilian fintech Creditas raised a US$55m Series C from Vostok Emerging Finance, Amadeus Capital Partners, Santander
InnoVentures and others

Goldman Sachs led a US$34m investment in Ualá, an Argentine mobile banking app, with participation from monashees, Ribbit Capital,
Jefferies Group, Cohen’s Point72 Ventures, and Soros' family office.

Brazil’s two largest real estate portals, Viva Real and Globo-owned Zap, merged in 2017

Walmart acquired Mexican delivery startup Cornershop for US$225m in its first known acquisition in LatAm

Argentinian online travel agency Despegar, IPO’d on the NYSE

Brazilian e-commerce company Netshoes IPO’d on the NYSE

*Not all transactions included in LAVCA industry data

Big Tech
Latin America is Airbnb’s top growth market globally (Bloomberg 2017) Netflix is booming outside of America, with LatAm as a top growth
market (Bloomberg 2017)
Amazon launched its first-ever debit card, Amazon Rechargeable, in Mexico The second-most streamed series on Netflix globally for 2017 was a
(Reuters 2018) Brazilian series called 3% (Exame)
Amazon also launched Echo and Alexa in Mexico, its first LatAm market Mexico had the most members watching every single day of any
(VentureBeat 2018) country in 2017 (Forbes)

Didi Chuxing chose Mexico as its first expansion market outside of China (Reuters Chinese rideshare unicorn Ofo chose Mexico as its first international
2017) market (Reuters 2018)

Facebook chose Colombia as its first global market to test out its new dating Postmates chose Mexico as its first international expansion market in
feature (TechCrunch 2018) 2017
Facebook is building a 1,553-mile subsea cable to boost internet speeds in
Argentina (VentureBeat 2018) Spotify’s user growth in Latin America was second only to North
America in 2017, according to Billboard
Google is investing US$140m to expand its data center in Chile, which runs 100%
on solar power from the Atacama region (Reuters 2018) Uber launched its first digital wallet in Brazil (ZDNet 2018)
Google chose Mexico as the first destination to launch Google Wifi in Latin
America (Engadget 2018) WeWork is expanding aggressively in Latin America (Bloomberg 2017)

Monsanto Growth Ventures made its inaugural Brazil investment in

Visa made its inaugural investments in the region with a US$12.5m round in Latin
Grão Direto, a grain marketplace that primarily transacts via mobile
American fintech YellowPepper, and a strategic minority investment in
and WhatsApp
Conductor, a leading digital payments processing technology platform in Brazil
MercadoLibre and Globant launched local CVC funds and made
Salesforce Ventures made its inaugural investment in Latin America in RunaHR, a
inaugural investments
Mexican payroll automation platform, in a seed round that included Y Combinator,
the founder of Gmail, CTO of Dropbox & others
 With Facebook’s support, LAVCA is conducting the first-ever survey of
Latin American startups, the results of which will be shared globally to help
put Latin American tech innovation on the map