Here are the highlights on Brazil’s tech and business scene in December:
Dec 27
Former Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello have become an investor in startups. Barrichello became a partner in FTRM Group, a holding company that owns several companies, including Futurum Capital.
Dec 27
After five years, ACE buys back the stake acquired by Bossanova, returning the investment with a multiple of almost 3 times. In 2017, the fund was responsible for leading a round of investments in the startup accelerator in partnership with a group of investors.
Dec 23
Revpay, a startup from Amapá that operates credit to empower women and focuses on resellers and grocery stores, participated in Darwin Startup’s batch #12 acceleration program for startups and received investment at the end of the process.
Dec 22
Vivo’s CVC led the investment round of R$30 million of the fintech Klubi, a consortium administrator. Igah Ventures and Cyrela´s partners also joined the round.
Dec 17
The technology school Cubos Academy received an investment of R$ 23.2 million. The seed round investment was led by VOX Capital and G2A Investment Partners, with participation from Solum Capital. The edtech was founded in 2020, to offer training courses in technology following the increasing demand for professionals in this sector in Brazil and across the world.
Dec 15
Banco do Brasil invested in the govtech Aprova Digital. The deal was led by Astella and VOX Capital, the manager responsible for BB Impacto ESG. The seed stage round (initial) had a total value of R$ 22.5 million and it is the largest round of investments in a govtech in Latin America
Dec 15
Open Co, an unsecured personal loan fintech created with the merger of Geru and Rebel, acquired BoletoFlex, a startup from Santa Catarina that specializes in the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) model, the digital version of the “old” payday loans popular in Brazil.
Dec 11
Andre Vellozo, Founder & CEO of DrumWave; Ivana Ferreira, Latin America, Nasdaq; and Mike Krieger, Co-Founder of Instagram, among the 100 most influential Latinos. All of them have been featured at BayBrazil annual conferences.
Dec 9
Google Pay received authorization from the Central Bank to become a payment institution (IP), in the form of payment transaction initiator (ITP), in a move that demonstrates the appetite of one of the main big techs for financial services in Brazil.
Dec 5
Docket, a search, management and pre-analysis startup for legal documents, received R$ 110 million in a round led by Gerdau Ventures and Inovabra. The series B also had the participation of TM3 Capital, Bematech co-founder Marcel Malczewski; Valor Capital; ONEVC; and Wayra. The last three funds have already invested in Series A, along with Canary and Kaszek.
Dec 1
The venture capital fund Headline, the result of a partnership between Headline Global and XP Asset invested in Smart Break, a startup of autonomous micromarkets. The round of R$ 36 million includes the contribution of R$ 30 million from Headline FIP and also included the participation of the Ultra Group’s venture capital fund (UVC), as well as current investors.
Dec 1
Pátria acquired 100% of Igah Ventures, expanding the range of companies in which it can invest and showing that the bet of the venture capital firm is here to stay. The transaction will be fully paid in shares. The M&A amounts were not disclosed.
News gathering by Thais Chertman
