🥳 We're back! Celebrating Beek and EFEX
Welcome to Tech Latino! This is Stanford Latino’s biweekly newsletter where we capture the emerging trends, biggest deals, and excitingideas in the LatAm technology environment.
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In the past two weeks…
🥳 One of our very own Stanford Latino members, Santiago Bustamante, alongside Dimitri Zaninovich, have recently launched their new startup in Mexico following their pre-seed funding. The company, EFEX, brings the benefits of blockchain to facilitate international transactions for SMEs in Latin America. We wish you the best of luck!
📚Mexican startup Beek closed a $13M round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners: Beek started as a social network for users to review their favorite books. It now partners with content creators to produce original audio content, offering them higher compensation than Spotify. Currently, it has 3 million registered users, 250,000 audiobooks and 1,000 pieces of exclusive content. Some angel investors in this round include Sam Altman (OpenAI), Jorge Mazal (Duolingo), and Sebastian Mejía (Rappi).
🏦 Nubank will strengthen its presence in Colombia with a loan of up to US$150 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). This marks the IFC’s first investment in a digital bank in Latin America and the Caribbean. This loan comes after Nubank Colombia's successful business model, having issued over 400,000 credit cards across every single department in Colombia.
💸 Te Facturo was acquired by Mexican startup Mendel (undisclosed amount). Following new Mexican regulations, Mendel has acquired Te Facturo, a fintech startup focused on recovery of digital fiscal documents through the internet. Following the acquisition, Mendel’s team now has 80 new employees, and they're currently implementing Te Facturo's technology in Mendel.
🏆 During the GRAMMYs last Sunday, Bad Bunny took home Best Música Urbana Album for “Un Verano Sin Ti”, and ROSALÍA’s “MOTOMAMI” won Best Latin Rock, Alternative, or Urban Album.
Spotlights : The Four F’s!
Every week, we spotlight one of each: a firm, a fund, a founder, and a food item. This week, we look at Cargamos, Kavak’s founder Carlos Garcia Ottai, Bossa Nova Investimentos, and Tamales!
🏫 Firm Spotlight: Cargamos
Cargamos is a startup based in Mexico that aims to help online businesses by offering logistical solutions through technological and urban infrastructure. They want to make next-day deliveries more efficient, accessible, environmentally-friendly, and less expensive. They have multiple micro stations around the country that have delivery points, extra storage, and distribution centers. It was founded in 2019 by Ivan Arzia, who focuses on empowering e-commerce in Latin America.
Founder: Carlos Garcia Ottai
Carlos Garcia Ottai is the founder and CEO of Kavak. Kavak is a global company with operations in various Latin American countries. They bring a platform for buying pre-owned cars for reusable prices and safe transactions. Carlos graduated from Oxford with his MBA in 2011 and went on to work at various companies like Linio Mexico, Rocket Internet, and True Home. He started Kavak six years ago when he had trouble selling and buying his own car. The company now has a valuation of 8.7 million dollars and Carlos continues to grow it year by year.
Fund: Bossa Nova Investimentos
Bossa Nova Investimentos is a VC fund based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They are a pre-seed fund focused on Latin American technology companies. They were founded in 2011 by João Kepler and Pierre Schurmann, two of Brazil's most successful investors. So far, they have built a diverse portfolio, investing in EdTech, Fintech, Cloud infrastructure, and others.
Food: Tamales
A traditional Mesoamerican dish made of corn has become a staple in hundreds of Latin American homes. The dough consists of corn and it is steamed in a husk or banana leaf. Usually eaten with other traditional foods like rice and beans, Tamales are always a good idea!
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