Brazilian startups secured 75% of the total raised by the Latin American innovation ecosystem in October: out of $1.2 billion raised by startups in the whole region, $892.9 million were infused in Brazilian companies. For comparison, in September the volume invested in the country was $250.8 million, while the total for Latin America was $1.7 billion. These data are from the Startup Activity Report, issued by the Brazilian intelligence platform Sling Hub and obtained first-hand by LABS.
Overall, there were 92 investment rounds in Latin America last month; 72 of them were held in Brazil and 8 in Mexico, followed by Chile (5), Colombia (3), Argentina (3), and Peru and Uruguay (1 each).
The average round size was $13 million – 23 startups raised between $10 and $50 million – and Series A was the most common investment round (17), suggesting a greater enthusiasm from investors for startups with the potential to become scale-ups. There was also a growing interest in B2B business models.
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The biggest Series A winner this month was CRM&Bonus, a startup focused on giftback software, which raised a $51.9 million round co-led by SoftBank and Riverwood Capital. According to the report, this was the largest funding secured by a sales tech startup in Latin America to date.
Looking at the markets that brought in the most investors, fintechs continue to lead, with 25 rounds, or 27% of the total, followed by retail techs, with 11 rounds, and log techs, with 6 rounds.
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Although fintechs continue to lead the way, the largest October funding was held by a log tech startup called CargoX, which connects truckers to companies that need freight. The logistics startup raised a $200 million Series F from SoftBank and Tencent.
In the ranking of the ten most invested startups, eight are Brazilian. We highlight the $50 million Series A round raised by the Chilean HRtech Buk; and Argentina’s Pomelo, a fintech that secured a $35 million Series A round.
Japanese group SoftBank and U.S. manager Tiger Global were October’s top investors in Latin America. Both companies are also the biggest investors in Latin American unicorns: SoftBank has 13 in its portfolio and Tiger Global has 11.
M&As soared in October
The last quarter of the year started out heated also in the M&A area in Latin America: there were 33 acquisitions and 2 mergers, the largest volume of deals in a single month. “This M&A wave is really impressive. And if we look at the last months, since February we have at least one LatAm startup acquisition per working day,” said João Ventura, CEO at Sling Hub.
Among the M&A hottest deals, the acquisition of the big data company Neoway by B3 for $333.9 million (about BRL 1.8 billion, the biggest acquisition since 2017 when B3 became the main infrastructure of the Brazilian financial market). Locaweb, one of the largest startups buyers in Brazil, also made a new acquisition – the 13th in the last two years! – and bought Squid, a company that connects influencers and content creators to brands, for $32.7 million.
