Latin America’s tech theatre saw a initial share of pivots and new launches final month, both from unfamiliar companies and internal startups. Here’s a news we don’t wish to miss:
Google news
September noted a end of Google’s initial amicable network, Orkut. Launched in Jan 2004, it had maintained tremendous recognition in Brazil for roughly a decade before eventually losing belligerent to competitors. Despite a shutdown, some of Orkut’s calm stays accessible as a open archive.
Meanwhile, song streaming platform Google Play Music launched in Brazil in partnership with Samsung. According to ZDNet, owners of Galaxy S4, Galaxy S5, Galaxy Tab S and Galaxy Note 4 inclination will be means to use a use for giveaway for a six-month period. Those who possess other Samsung inclination will need to wait until Nov and will usually get 3 months free, that competence not be adequate to woo them from a competition.
In addition, the organisation denounced a platform assisting Brazilian voters find some-more about information a country’s arriving ubiquitous choosing and a 20,000 candidates. Google Eleições follows similar practice in India and Germany and was done probable by a partnerships Google hermetic with Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court, NGO Transparência Brasil and several media outlets.
Google also took to a blog to announce a attainment of Google Street View in several Argentine cities and a inclusion of new points of seductiveness in Mexico.
MAs
Telefónica and Vivendi hermetic a deal that will see a former acquire Brazilian user GVT from a latter for $9.3 billion in money and shares. As we may know, Telecom Italia had done a competing though reduce offer. The transaction is still theme to regulatory approval.
Rocket Internet’s food ordering startup HelloFood (also famous as FoodPanda in other regions) made a fourth merger in Brazil this year to keep on boosting a marketplace share. Purchased organisation Entrega Delivery was mostly benefaction in the cities of Campinas and Belo Horizonte.
Meanwhile, London-based food grouping organisation Just Eat joined a Brazilian property RestauranteWeb with one of a market’s strongest players, iFood. According to Tech.eu, a newly-formed corner venture will be “25% owned by Just Eat, 24.98% by a iFood founders and 50.02% by Movile“. As we reported final month, Movile recently secured $55 million in new funding, which it will partly dedicate to partnerships and acquisitions in a offline-to-online space.
Brazilian e-commerce heavyweight B2W took full ownership of logistics firm Direct Express Logística, Reuters reported.
Analytics and rendezvous organisation 1World acquired Mexican startup Flipter, that will now work as 1World Latin America. Best famous for a polling tools, first reviewed by TNW in 2011, a startup was formerly incubated and accelerated by Cyberport Hong Kong, Start-Up Chile and Naranya Labs. 1World had recently expanded into Europe and Asia.
Brazilian online confidence organisation Site Blindado acquired a categorical aspirant TrustSign, Startupi reported.
Funding rounds
Argentine e-commerce newcomer Avenida lifted an considerable volume of appropriation this September: $17.5 million. According to VentureBeat, Tiger Global led a round, with additional appearance from Naspers. We formerly listed Avenida as one of a top Latin American startups to watch out for in 2014.
Brazilian Web and app-based guide for internal businesses Apontador received a $15 million investment from Movile as partial of a company’s above-mentioned “offline-to-online” strategy. With operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay, Apontador currently lists information and reviews on 10 million “points of interest”, from hotels and restaurants to film theaters and museums. According to Movile, Apontador now hopes to turn “a mobile-first height that connects people on a go to internal businesses while nurturing internal commerce for tiny merchants.”
Brazil-based financial startup Nubank received a new $13.8 million turn of appropriation led by Sequoia Capital, with appearance from Kaszek Ventures and Berggruen Holdings, Dealbook reported.
As some of we competence remember, the financial blog had revealed in 2013 that Sequoia’s former partner in Brazil David Velez was rising a remuneration try in Brazil – afterwards handling underneath a opposite and reduction commercial name. It was also during that time that we schooled Kaszek and Sequoia were subsidy it financially, that means it wasn’t wholly accurate to impute to this follow-on round as “Sequoia’s initial Brazil investment” as some did this week.
Still, it is engaging to know that Nubank now has new funding to grow a innovative offering. Its product consists of a Mastercard Platinum credit label that Brazilian users can conduct from their smartphone. According to Estadão’s blog Link, it is targeted during immature business who wish to hoop their finances online – and could be captivated by a reduce seductiveness rates enabled by practical operations.
Another mobile-focused startup received new funding: Brazil-based Emprego Ligado. This recruitment height for entry-level jobs lifted a $7 million array A turn from e.Bricks, Monashees Capital and Qualcomm Ventures, TechCrunch reported.
E-Commerce News informed that civic demonstrate smoothness height Loggi had raised a R$10 million investment turn (around $4 million USD) from Monashees Capital and Qualcomm Ventures.
“Spanish Uber” Cabify sealed a $4 million turn led by prior investors Seaya Ventures and Black Vine, new Spanish tech blog Novobrief reported. This follows a $8 million turn unveiled by a organisation final April. At a time, it announced a idea to accelerate a expansion in Latin America, where it now boasts a 30% monthly expansion rate.
Identity supervision use Auth0 (read “authzero”) raised a $2.4 million seed appropriation round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with appearance from K9 Ventures, Portland Seed Fund, NXTP Labs and particular investors (disclosure: NXTP Labs is an financier in my startup, MonoLibre).
Auth0 describes itself as a organisation “founded by developers for developers, with a idea of expelling a pain of integrating authentication and authorisation into apps and APIs.” Its charity has some-more than 8,000 subscribers, from startups to vast corporations. While it is headquartered in Seattle, several of its team members are formed in Argentina and a product is used in 124 countries.
Brazilian B2B financial supervision startup Nibo lifted an undisclosed volume of appropriation from Redpoint e.ventures and Valor Capital Group, Exame reported.
Mexican P2P lending startup Kubo.financiero lifted $1.7 million from Alta Ventures México y Capital Emprendedor, bringing a sum appropriation to $3.7 million.
Brazilian intelligent pricing height Precifica perceived a R$3 million investment (around $1.2 million USD) from tech holding Hi Partners, E-Commerce News reported.
Health and wellness portal Doutíssima lifted an undisclosed volume of collateral from European supports DFJ Esprit and Breega Capital. According to Startupi, it formerly perceived subsidy from Telefónica’s accelerator Wayra in London and recently changed into Wayra Brasil Academy.
Social media management startup Everypost lifted a $850k seed round, Tech Cocktail Miami reported. Backers include San Francisco-based Handmade Ventures, Miami-based Krillion Ventures, above-mentioned NXTP Labs and angel investors from a US and Latin America.
More acceleration and funding sources
Start-Up Chile denounced a list of 100 startups that will be partial of a “11th generation” from Feb 2015. The government-backed module is now scheming a 12th batch, for which it perceived the highest series of applications to date: 2,448, a 30% boost compared to turn 9’s prior record.
As for Startup Brasil, it still has efforts to make to strech a same turn of transparency. As a matter of fact, Brazil’s sovereign inducement module was several days late in announcing the list of companies that could be accelerated as partial of a third edition. The module will now be managed by a third party, SOFTEX (which stands for ‘Association for a Promotion of Brazilian Software Excellence’). While this competence not be enough to captivate seasoned entrepreneurs back into requesting for a next edition, it was also announced that IBM would make some a resources available to participating teams.
Meanwhile, a city supervision of São Paulo combined a possess fostering intrigue for tech startups, ZDNet reported. Called Tech Sampa, it will provide early-stage companies with appropriation and support to be postulated in 3 stages, in organisation with the Brazilian Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).
Infrastructure
World Bank’s section IFC will invest US$97 million in Brazilian telecom conduit ON Telecom to assistance it build a infrastructure, Nearshore Americas reported. “ON’s group is unapproachable to dedicate a efforts to a purpose of joining a unconnected,” pronounced a company’s CEO Fares Nassar.
German business software company SAP skeleton to deposit R$19 million ($8,5 million USD) in a Brazil-based cloud trickery to horde some of a systems and solutions, ZDNet reported.
Expansions
Rocket Internet is starting to make sound about its ridesharing company, Tripda, that already rolled out operations in several countries. Southeast Asia aside, it also landed in most Latin American markets: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay.
On a side note, Rocket Internet joined 5 of a tellurian e-commerce services into one singular business. As we reported, Dafiti (Latin America), Jabong (India), Lamoda (Russia and CIS), Namshi (Middle East) and Zalora (Southeast Asia and Australia) will now be famous as “GFG”.
French online tradesman Cdiscount is gearing adult to launch in Brazil, specialized media opening LSA Conso revealed. Owned by French sell sequence Casino, it already stretched into Belgium, Colombia, Ecuador, Ivory Coast and Senegal.
Open online preparation provider Coursera is expanding into Brazil in partnership with a University of Sao Paulo (USP) and a State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), that will develop classes that will turn accessible in early 2015. Additional partners embody a Lemann Foundation, that led translations of existent MOOCs and will emanate new calm for teachers, and online portal R7, which will foster them.
Other preparation platforms that formerly benefited from Portuguese translations and additional support supposing by a Lemann substructure embody Google’s YouTube Edu and Brazilian MOOC portal Veduca, that had also partnered with Brazilian universities.
New launches
Brazilian-American accelerator 21212 is diversifying revenues and expanding a strech with a launch of e-learning height for entrepreneurs 21212 Academy . In an interview with Startupi, co-founder Fred Lacerda explained that a acceleration module isn’t shutting down: “21212 will keep on handling as an accelerator, though focused on expansion theatre in some-more modernized startups, or on early-stage ones though with high intensity for discerning growth,” he pronounced (translation ours). No discuss was done of a fund 21212 had announced to be raising in late 2012.
Groupon announced that Brazil would be a initial Latin American nation to receive some of a new services already introduced in a US this year. The initial ones to land will Groupon Reserve (for restaurant bookings), Groupon Live (for uncover tickets) and Groupon Freebies (for sell coupons), to be followed by Groupon Pages and Gnome, both targeted during vendors. Ahead of their launch, a organisation already expelled a new app and site in Brazil, that simulate a concentration divided from daily deals and into e-commerce.
Online edition height Medium launched a beta chronicle of “Medium em português“- Medium in Portuguese. Targeted during Brazil, it facilities both translations from English and local articles.
Mexican startup LastRoom launched LastRoom for Business, a full transport engagement and supervision resolution targeting corporate clients, quite SMBs meddlesome in a wider range of accommodation options. This represents a diversification for a company, whose initial product was a B2C app for same-day engagement (which still exists and was recently updated), followed by a side product for eventuality organizers.
In an engaging post patrician “Our Real Love are Business Travelers,” founder Angela Cois common some of a reasons behind this concentration and a lessons her group schooled along a way. “According to a experience, a usually approach to contest and to benefit a significative cut of a marketplace is to concentration on a specific vertical, that in a box means focusing 100% on business travelers,” she explained.
The Vatican hosted a launch of Scholas.Social, self-described as a “first online, collaborative and multi-religious platform, that seeks to bond educational institutions all over a world, regardless of race, tone or religion.” The initiative, promoted by Pope Francis, perceived giveaway technical contributions from Argentine listed tech organisation Globant, Argentine IT studio Line64 and Google.
Legal news
Mobile operator Nextel’s parent company NII Holdings competence have filed for failure insurance in a United States, though it still unresolved on to a Brazilian and Mexican units, notwithstanding a undergoing sale of a other Latin American operations, Reuters forked out:
“To lift off a turnaround in Brazil, a conduit is counting on regulations and promote spectrum that, since of a razor-thin marketplace share, could give it rival advantages taken to vital rivals. Such advantages would disappear if Nextel Brazil merges with a bigger carrier, one reason takeover talks never got off a belligerent notwithstanding a call of mergers in a Brazilian market, according to dual sources with approach believe of a situation,” it explained.
The city of Buenos Aires introduced a new 3% tax to be charged on payments to online party services such as Spotify and Netflix. The price is set to be levied by credit and withdraw label issuers.
Yahoo and a law organisation are being sued by dual Mexican companies for allegedly regulating a hurtful decider to dominate another decider ruling on a case. Said decider reduced the $2.7 billion damages Yahoo would have had to compensate to usually $172,500, Reuters reported.
Also on TNW:
Ahead of IPO, Rocket Internet CEO tells staff to conquer ‘all 4 corners’ of a world
WEB: A touching documentary about One Laptop Per Child and a widespread of a Internet
Yahoo’s intelligent Android homescreen app Aviate adds 7 some-more languages, including French, Spanish and German
YouTube’s new fan appropriation underline lets we present to your favorite channel owners
Zuckerberg: WhatsApp can turn ‘the tellurian content messaging platform’ joining ‘2 or 3 billion people’
Good reads from opposite a Web:
Android manners a Brazilian smartphone market [ZDNet]
¿Cómo generar más emprendimiento e innovación en América Latina? [El País - in Spanish]
Cultural Realities Of Latin American Entrepreneurship [TechCrunch]
Debt Default or Not, It’s Entrepreneurship That’s Going to Save Argentina [Huffington Post]
Downsized Nextel user is not giving adult a quarrel in Brazil [Reuters]
“Eleição Transparente”, o site que mostra quais candidatos tentaram censurar a internet [YouPix - in Portuguese]
Entrepreneur Profile: Gary Urteaga, Cinepapaya [LAVCA]
For unfamiliar tech entrepreneurs, removing a visa to work in a US is a struggle [The Guardian]
Los 20 latinos más influyentes de la industria de la tecnología de 2014 [CNET en Español - in Spanish]
São Pedro Valley se torna referência em empreendedorismo no Brasil [Globo - in Portuguese]
The Big Question: The Social Media Frenzy [World Policy]
The 5 best cities to launch a startup in Latin America [GigaOM]
Top South America hackers clap Peru’s Cabinet [AP]
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