While Brazil’s descending into retrogression isn’t good news for Latin America, it stays to be seen how many this will impact a region’s tech scene, that can still count on other long-term factors to fuel a growth. As a result, Aug was as bustling a month as ever, with a flurry of new launches and acquisitions holding place. Here’s a news we don’t wish to miss:
Done deals
Australian telecommunications giant Telstra is set to acquire 98 percent of video streaming and placement organisation Ooyala with a $270 million investment that comes in further to a $61 million invested in a association over a past dual years. Founded by Mexican-American brothers Bismarck Lepe and Belsasar Lepe, together with their crony Sean Knapp, Ooyala has several tellurian offices, including one in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Brazilian IT organisation Tivit concluded to acquire Chile’s systems integrator Synapsis for S$150 million, Nearshore Americas reported. Tivit will now work as Tivit-Synapsis in Spanish-speaking Latin America, while gripping a name in Brazil. It will control 9 information centers opposite a region.
Fellow Brazilian IT organisation BRQ acquired risk supervision module provider InfoSolution, Valor reported. The deal’s value wasn’t disclosed.
Ad tech association Beanstock Media acquired mobile edition startup Onswipe, a Techstars NY alum co-founded by Colombian businessman Andrés Barreto. While Fortune primarily reported that investors wouldn’t see any return, a story was after nice to simulate that Onswipe’s backers and employees perceived Beanstock equity.
Talking to TechCrunch, Onswipe’s former CEO and stream arch selling officer Jason Baptiste pronounced that a merger concerned an undisclosed volume of money and stock, adding that 24 out of 28 Onswipe staff members would be fasten Beanstock, formulating an 80-person organization.
European on-demand T-shirt copy height Spreadshirt bought a Brazilian reflection Vitrinepix to boost a general expansion. The Leipzig-based association already boasts operations in 18 countries and 10 languages.
Spanish law portal vLex acquired Argentine startup Quolaw, Loogic reported. As we competence remember, a startup was showcased during Wayra Demo Day in 2012 as one of Wayra Argentina’s alumni and went on to join Plug and Play Spain’s acceleration program.
Brazilian hosting association RedeHost acquired email selling startup Mailee for an undisclosed amount, Startupi reported.
Brazilian online promote startup Netshow.me acqui-hired a aspirant Tipit, one month after announcing a initial angel investment round, Startupi also informed.
In addition, it reported that motorcycle bearer use 99motos was acquired by Incube for R$3 million (around $1.32 million USD). A self-described “venture builder”, Incube is now set to relaunch a use as MovMov.it.
MA talks
France’s Vivendi picked Telefónica as best swain to acquire Global Village Telecom (GVT), a Brazilian user for that a Spanish telco had offered about $8.9 billion in money and shares. Telecom Italia had done a competing though reduce offer.
As for British association Vodafone, it made pure that it was meddlesome in entering a Brazilian market. However, it won’t do so by holding partial in a arriving 4G mobile auction as Brazilian authorities hoped. Instead, a devise is to acquire one of a country’s existent mobile carriers. According to Brazilian journal Estadão, a market’s second largest actor TIM would be a many expected target.
Funding news
Singapore emperor resources account GIC acquired an 18.5% interest in Brazilian preparation services association Abril Educação for an undisclosed sum, PEHub reported. GIC already took partial in a vital understanding in Brazil final May when it led Netshoes’ $170 million appropriation round.
Food smoothness use FoodPanda lifted a $60 million spin from Rocket Internet and Falcon Edge Capital, TechCrunch reported. The association operates in Latin America underneath a Hellofood brand.
Brazilian mobile commerce association Movile announced carrying cumulative a whopping sum of $55 million this month. On one hand, it lifted a $35 million Series D spin led by enlargement equity organisation Innova Capital, with appearance from South African media and e-commerce heavyweight Naspers, that has been subsidy a association given 2008. On a other hand, it was postulated $20 million in long-term financing by FINEP, Brazil’s Funding Authority for Studies and Projects within a Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
The association now skeleton to use a new collateral to “build a ultimate height for people to buy discernible products and services by mobile devices,” hinting during intensity acquisitions and partnerships in a “online-to-offline” space. A few days ago, we schooled that it had raised a appearance in food smoothness startup iFood to a infancy stake.
Movile’s portfolio also includes PlayKids, a subscription-based kids’ party app that is now one of a world’s top-grossing children’s apps.
Latin American genuine estate and jobs classifieds holding Navent lifted $20 million in a Series C appropriation from Riverwood Capital, Crunchbase reported. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Buenos Aires, Navent operates sites all opposite Latin America, with properties such as Bumeran.com and ImovelWeb, by that it claims to attract 30 million monthly users.
Bus transport engagement height ClickBus lifted $10 million from Latin America Internet Group, Tengelmann Ventures, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Rocket Internet, VentureVillage reported. The startup is already benefaction in 7 countries and skeleton to use this new appropriation to keep on flourishing and expanding. According to a Brazilian co-CEO Cesario Martins, it will also launch iOS and Android apps in a nearby future.
Brazilian automobile tools online tradesman Itaro lifted a Series A spin led by Astella Investimentos, with appearance from Russia’s Simile Venture, Ukraine’s TA Venture, Mexico’s Variv Capital and Argentina’s IG Business Angels, Startupi reported.
New York-based developer-focused startup Tutum lifted a $2.65 million appropriation spin led by RTP Ventures with appearance from Azure Capital Partners. As VentureBeat explains, a one-year-old association is partial of a ecosystem that has been rising around open height Docker. Its core business is to “provide cloud infrastructure for hosting applications that are finished in Docker containers” to take a pain out of deploying apps. It had formerly lifted seed appropriation from NXTP Labs and Techstars (disclosure: NXTPLabs is an financier in my startup, MonoLibre).
Open online marketplace for algorithms Algorithmia lifted a $2.4 million investment spin for a platform, that is now in private beta and set to launch publicly by a finish of a year. Its founders are AI PhD Kenneth Daniel and Uruguayan-born former Microsoft worker Diego Oppenheimer. The spin was led by Madrona Venture Group, with appearance from Deep Fork Capital, Rakuten Ventures and angel investors Oren Etzioni and Charles Fitzgerald.
“Most algorithms never see daylight, given they are buried within educational papers. Algorithmia has a intensity to spin into a pivotal height where algorithms’ origination meets a market,” Etzioni pronounced (translation ours).
Mobile eventuality supervision height Vamo announced carrying lifted R$4.5 million ($2 million USD) so distant from angel investors. Co-founded by MeetMe’s former CEO, John Abbott, a five-month-old association boasts a appearance in 5 Brazilian cities, where it powered ticketing for some-more than 1,000 tiny and mid-sized events.
Brazilian website origination height SitePX lifted R$3 million ($1.33 million USD) from maestro Internet association Sul! Internet in sell for a 30% equity stake, Startupi reported.
Event find app Vamos (not to be confused with above-mentioned Vamo) sealed a “six-digit amount” of appropriation from high-profile angel investors, including SoundCloud’s co-founder and CTO Erik Wahlforss. While both companies are Berlin-based, Vamos has tighten ties to Latin America: a CEO Luis-Daniel Alegría is a Swedish-born Chilean, while a arch enlargement officer David Prentell is half-Mexican.
The app already boasts some-more than 100,000 downloads and 20,000 monthly active users, and these numbers are expected to keep on growing. According to Alegría, Vamos is regulating a new collateral to enhance a organisation and move a use to some-more inclination and platforms.
Brazilian online video placement association Samba Tech took an undisclosed interest in e-learning height Edools, that is now fasten a Samba Group, Startupi reported.
Fortaleza-based engineer marketplace Logovia perceived a spin of investment led by Initial Capital with appearance from Beberibe Ventures, Rising Ventures and angel financier Helmut Harz, Startupi reported.
Latin American associate South Ventures invested in Colombia-based bureau reserve startup Ofi. In a blog post, a account highlighted location as one of a pivotal factors that led it to deposit in Ofi; Colombia is a fast-growing market, where bureau supply purchases still haven’t changed online. In addition, Ofi’s CEO Peter Ostrocke formerly co-founded Brazilian fast-fashion startup Olook.
Latin American e-commerce hulk MercadoLibre announced a list of startups that will be a initial ones to receive investment from a newly set MercadoLibre Commerce fund. All 3 of them are Wayra Brasil alumni: 00k, AirCRM and Intoo. The account is now examining other projects, and set a normal investment sheet during $100k. As we reported final year, Wayra and MercadoLibre already had a partnership in place for a Argentine association to yield support and subsidy to a accelerator’s retail-related ventures opposite several Latin American countries.
Medellin-based VC organisation Velum Ventures suggested a names of a 3 fist companies corroborated by a early-stage fund, Pulso Social reported. These are pet products online tradesman Ciudad de Mascotas, food portal Cocina33 and online flower emporium Flores y Más.
More acceleration…
500 Startups unveiled a list of startups about to join a 10th acceleration collection in San Francisco. While nothing of them are headquartered in Latin America this time, 18 of 28 have during slightest one foreign‐born founder, including Venezuelan businessman Luis Perez from NakedRoom and Lendsquare‘s Mexican co-founders, Sebastian Villarreal and Jose Valdes.
Facebook launched a array of actions to promote a Preferred Marketing Developer module in Brazil, where it orderly a hackathon charity fast-track and dedicated support to winners.
São Paulo welcomed a new accelerator, Gema Ventures, whose module has dual specificities: it focuses on mobile B2B projects, and lasts 18 months. It is led by Luisa Ribeiro, who formerly founded Rio-based accelerator Papaya Ventures, strictly close down final June.
Brazil Innovators suggested a list of 13 Brazilian entrepreneurs holding partial in a latest TechMission, an soak module that recently brought them to Silicon Valley.
…and new launches
Desktop blog modifying app Blogo done a successful entrance into a Mac App Store, where it got featured worldwide. While it’s done in Brazil by sequence businessman Amure Pinho and his team, it is wholly in English and aiming for a tellurian audience. Priced during $14.99, it includes facilities such as offline mode, mixed WordPress blog management, Evernote formation and built-in picture editing.
Amazon started to sell printed books in Brazil. According to Brazilian journal Folha, a catalog includes 150,000 titles in Portuguese, that come in further to a e-books a association had already been selling in a nation given 2012.
Colombian conform distributor Grupo Uribe launched a multi-brand online tradesman Lük that is set to contest opposite Dafiti and Linio, Colombian journal La República reported.
Meanwhile, MercadoLibre launched a conform vertical with a dedicated portal, mercadolibre.com.ar/moda, where users can buy wardrobe equipment from central partner stores.
Brazilian mobile selling and promotion provider Pontomobi announced that a media multiplication would now work as a corporate spin-off named Hands. The new try hopes to advantage from a enlargement of Latin America’s mobile promotion market, with subsidy from RBS Group’s investment arm e.Bricks Digital.
SF-based startup Rabbit relaunched with a new website that pairs video streaming with organisation chat. Located during https://rabb.it, a browser-based use lets users emanate unsentimental bedrooms where they can organisation adult and watch calm from platforms such as Netflix, Hulu and YouTube. Video aside, users can also share papers and games in real-time, possibly incidentally or with a predefined organisation of adult to 10 people.
According to Rabbit’s new CEO, half-Mexican businessman Michael Temkin, a association is anticipating to reinstate existent workarounds: “People have attempted to reconstruct this knowledge online by cobbling together opposite technologies and devices, though it usually doesn’t work. We’ve combined a simple, seamless approach to move people together,” he said.
Argentine startup TrackingTime launched a new iPhone app that helps freelancers and companies lane their tasks and conduct their projects. Available in English, German and Spanish, a SaaS use perceived appropriation from Argentine account Enzyme VC.
Banco Santander and Telefónica assimilated army to launch Miriada X, an online preparation height that will offer giveaway courses in Spanish and in Portuguese, news group EFE reported.
New Android and iOS app Spiral was launched with hopes to change a approach we bond with a people and places around us, TechCrunch reported. Its co-founders, several of whom are Mexican, found their impulse while attending a Coachella festival progressing this year.
Google updates
Google deserves a territory of a own, as it rolled out several new facilities in Brazil, including Google Maps’ Business View and Google Transit’s real-time updates. While a latter are usually accessible in a city of Sorocaba, it wouldn’t be startling to see them enhance in a nearby destiny to some of a other cities upheld by Google Transit.
In addition, Google-owned Waze sealed a partnership with Easy Taxi, that lets a cab company’s drivers and passengers share their routes by Waze’s app (as prolonged as they have it installed.) The partnership is set to hurl out initial in Brazil, Singapore and a Philippines.
Brazil aside, Google also done announcements per other Latin American countries, including Mexico, where it launched its Public Alerts and Crisis Map service. In unsentimental terms, it means that users competence see whirly warnings when browsing Google or Google Maps on their mechanism and mobile devices. They will also be means to hunt for additional crisis-related information, supposing in partnership with internal authorities.
Google also announced that Chrome is now accessible in Cuba, notwithstanding US trade restrictions. As a association notes, it formerly took measures to do a same in Syria and Iran.
Expansions…
Brazilian edutainment startup Qranio sealed a partnership with China Mobile to start blurb operations in China, for that it will start to concentration and interpret a content. This wasn’t a initial telco to partner with Qranio, that previously teamed adult with Portugal Telecom.
E-reader association Bookeen landed in Brazil by a partnership with bookselling sequence Saraiva, a French organisation announced on a blog. Two of a LEV models are now accessible in some-more than 100 stores opposite a country, confirming a company’s concentration on general growth.
Business beam and examination site Yelp is now accessible in Chile, FayerWayer reported. As we reported final June, a association recently rolled out a internal site in Argentina.
Sony launched a Video Unlimited use in Brazil, Tela Viva reported. The VOD portal claims a catalog of 500 titles, accessible for let or purchase.
Argentine app iBillionaire partnered with Direxion Investments to launch an exchange-traded account in a US. It is formed on a iBillionaire Index, that reportedly “consists of a 30 heading U.S. bonds in that a pool of adult to 10 billionaires has invested a many assets.”
In a eye of a law
Apple delisted unknown pity app Secret from a App Store in Brazil following a justice order. The app’s augmenting recognition in a nation had fast incited sour, ensuing in a array of complaints for posts trimming from defame and insults to unapproved exposed pictures.
While Secret’s ostensible safeguards have proved lacking in a US, it was presumably even reduction prepared to understanding with bullying posts in Brazilian Portuguese. Secret’s careers page currently lists a pursuit vacancy for a Brazilian Portuguese-speaking village operations dilettante means to “turn dissapoint users into evangelists.”
The Mexican supervision launched an beginning seeking developers to come adult with solutions to several open issues, for instance by formulating apps to assistance adults news travel lighting problems and corruption. There are 7 open calls in total, famous as “Retos Públicos” (“Public Challenges”), and any difficulty will have a possess leader and esteem award.
Perhaps some-more importantly, a whole preference routine is meant to be as satisfactory and pure as possible. In an talk with FayerWayer, county tech romantic Manuel Morato commented on this point: “The hurdles open adult a foe to tiny and middle companies who can win contracts they differently couldn’t. It’s about winning a contracts on merits, not for having more and improved contacts,” he remarkable (translation ours).
As for a Brazilian government, it skeleton to compensate $1.9 million to app and diversion developers that concentration on open services, ZDNet reported.The beginning is called INOVApps and includes rewards of adult to $43,937 each.
Also on TNW:
EA’s diversion subscription use for Xbox One emerges from beta
How Rocket Internet’s Dafiti is assisting to figure a destiny of e-commerce in Latin America
LG targets first-time smartphone owners with dual new quad-core, 3G devices
Report: People in rising markets cite large smartphones. Here’s why.
Rocket Internet moves into online payments around a $445 million investment from Asia
Spotify formation earnings to Shazam’s mobile apps in a UK, Germany and Mexico
The fight Uber faces: how it’s battling GrabTaxi and Easy Taxi in Southeast Asia
Good reads from opposite a Web:
An inside demeanour during how Rocket Internet builds startups during scale [Tech.eu]
Blacks, Latinos Dominate Silicon Valley’s ‘Invisible Workforce [Wall Street Journal]
Executive Briefing: The Venture Industry Evolves [LAVCA]
How Start-Up Chile is Influencing Entrepreneurial Behavior in Chile and Beyond [Leslie Forman]
How TEDx is swelling by farming Colombia—thanks to one organizer [TED.com]
M-commerce in Brazil adult 84 percent in a year [ZDNet]
New to a Archaeologist’s Tool Kit: The Drone [New York Times]
Passing a baton: Colombia overtakes Peru to turn a region’s fastest-growing large economy [The Economist]
Se fosse operadora, ‘Gatonet’ seria a 3ª do Brasil [Link Estadão - in Portuguese]
Sh*t Latam Investors say [Pulso Social - in Spanish]
Image credit: StockMonkeys.com