Global venture capital firm 500 Global (formerly 500 Startups), one of the world’s most active early-stage investment funds, with $2.7 billion of assets under management, announced the 15º batch of its Somos Lucha Latin American startup accelerator program. Since January, the organization’s team in LatAm has been working side by side with the founders of the ten selected startups. Besides training, the ten selected startups will receive $60,000 each from the firm.
The chosen companies were selected through a process that began with an open call to all Spanish-speaking Latin America for early-stage companies with a technological component. The applications were, then, reviewed, and founders were called on for interviews. Only the finalists are now receiving an investment offer.
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“Somos Lucha is our commitment to show that we are one of the best programs for early-stage startups in the Spanish-speaking Latin American region; this is just the beginning of our relationship as investors,” said Guillermo Guadarrama, director of programs for LatAm at 500 Global, in a press statement.
For 500 Global, this batch was an opportunity to continue its strategy of participating in markets that have a lot of growth potential. During it ten years of presence in Latin America, 500 Global has invested in two unicorns — Mexican fintechs Clip and Konfío — and several groundbreaking companies, such as Conekta, 99 minutos, Platzi, Jüsto, Ayenda, Yana, Graviti and Baubap, to name a few.
Through Somos Lucha initiative the firm has invested in more than 240 startups in the region.
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In this edition, 1,040 companies from all over Latin America applied, and ten were chosen — 60% of them have female leaders.
“In this generation of companies, we have been fortunate to invest in startups with incredible female founders who are revolutionizing each of their industries,” said Guadarrama. Batch 15 is just the first of the three batches of the program set to take place in 2022.
Meet the 10 LatAm startups selected for Somos Lucha’s batch 15:
- Aora (Ecuador): Application that offers a comprehensive solution for home repairs, installations, and maintenance.
- Artificial Nerds (Mexico): Platform that helps companies automate chat and voice channels using artificial intelligence.
- Avify (Costa Rica): Orders management system that helps companies consolidate their sales from multiple channels such as social networks and e-commerce platforms, centralizing their inventory in a single workflow.
- Databits (Ecuador): Online training platform that accelerates the development of skills in data science and artificial intelligence.
- Koltin (Mexico): Startup that provides digital health insurance and preventive care for the growing population of older adults in the region.
- Loopay (Colombia): Fintech that helps SMEs to grow by strengthening their cash flow.
- Nuevo Método (Argentina): Monthly sexual and reproductive health subscription that allows people to enjoy sexuality freely and safely.
- Qubit (Colombia): Ticket sales platform that helps personalize and monetize events through NFT tickets.
- Reliv (Ecuador): First integrated health platform that allows patients to connect with doctors, laboratories, pharmacies, and insurers.
- Scorce (Mexico): Unique API that easily connects companies to the best APIs in Latin America.
500 Global has invested in more than 5,000 founders of over 2,600 companies in 81 countries. Its portfolio includes 45 companies valued at $1 billion or more and over 130 companies valued at more than $100 million.
