2022 started out promising for Latin American startups: a report by the intelligence platform Sling Hub shows that in January they secured $1.3 billion in investments, a 70% jump over the volume raised in January 2021 (the year of records, remember), of $764 million. If 2022 has already started like this, what can we expect from the LatAm ecosystem for the rest of the year?
In all, 81 investment rounds were closed in January. The average check was $25.4 million, a ticket 56% bigger than the average registered in 2021.
Brazilian startups took 45% of the volume raised in the region in this first month – there were $591 million in 62 rounds. Although it continues to lead the way, Brazil has attracted less venture investment than in January 2021, when it got US$ 668 million.
Right after Brazil comes Colombia, with total funding of $255 million, 19% of the region’s total volume injected. The contrast here is that the country had only 5 rounds. The big Colombian star was Tul, a construction materials e-commerce startup that raised $181 million in a Series B led by 8VC and Avenir Growth Capital – and also announced its debut in Brazil. With this, the constructech broke two records: the largest round for a Latin American constructech and the largest Series B round for a startup from Colombia.
Ranking third was Mexico, which got an injection of $202.8 million distributed in 7 rounds. Completing the ranking were Argentina, with $152 million in 3 rounds; Chile, with $90.7 million also in 3 rounds, and Uruguay, with $20 million in 1 round.
Out of the seven countries about which Sling Hub gathers data, only Peru did not register any funding rounds.
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Talking about the biggest rounds, first on the podium is Brazilian Creditas with its Series F raised less than a year after reaching unicorn status. The Brazilian fintech secured $260 million and was valued at $4.8 billion. In second place is Tul. And in third is Argentina’s Satellogic, with a $150 million round.
The top 10 largest rounds also include: Gupy ($90 million – the largest for a human resources startup in Latin America); Xepelin ($80 million in a debt round); Mati ($70 million); Nexo ($50 million); LAIKA ($48 million); FairPlay ($35 million) and Rei do Pitaco ($32 million).
Among the most active investors are SoftBank, which invested in 7 Latin American startups; followed by Kaszek and MAYA Capital, tied for second place with 5 investments each; Domo, Canary, Iporanga, and Endeavor participated in 3 rounds each.
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Brazilian companies go shopping
January was also a busy month for mergers and acquisitions: there were 30 deals – 25 acquisitions and 5 mergers of Latin American startups. The most targeted startups were fintechs: financial technologies accounted for 20% of the startups acquired that month.
88% of the acquisitions were made by Brazilian companies. The report brings three main highlights: the purchase of Petix, a manufacturer of hygiene items for pets, for which Petz paid $12.6 million; the purchase of the investment platform Lote45 by Sinquia for $14.3 million; and the acquisition of the Argentinean Navent by the Brazilian Quinto Andar, for an undisclosed amount.
