Ep. 31: Closing the year with HealthTechs in the spotlight; Bitso & Clip innovating on payments and a new section.
Welcome to Scenius Mexico: Your weekly newsletter on technology, innovation, and startups in Mexico.
HealthTechs are in the spotlight this week with Plenna and Welbe Care’s seed rounds. In addition, NuBank is pouring even more money into its Mexican subsidiary Nu México.
Clip and Bitso are innovating on the payment front while Kavak’s co-founder is back in the battlefield to save the company.
Also, we’re adding a new section called Ice Breaker to spotlight someone working on building the Mexican startup ecosystem. Feedback is always welcome!
Last but not least, this edition of Scenius Mexico will be the last one of the year so I wish you all a merry Christmas and happy new year!
Equity Funding Rounds
FemTech Plenna raises a US$4.4 million Seed Round
Plenna is the first Mexican femtech offering a comprehensive health services platform in Latin America. The Startup offers hybrid care with its innovative model, and is reimagining women’s care through a branded experience infused with technology. Plenna offers in-person gynecology services and virtual mental health, nutrition, gynecology and primary care services through a direct-to-consumer (DTC) model.
The fresh funds will be used to expand its services and support the launch of its new platform where patients can view their medical records, pre-fill their medical histories, and more; while physicians can collaboratively interact with each other, providing comprehensive diagnoses and tracking key patient metrics.
Sector: HealthTech - FemTech
Total Raised: US$5.3 million
Founders: Giovanna Abram, Lorena Ostos Rangel
Investors: Canary, 500 Global, Bridge, Collaborative Fund, Urban Innovation Fund, 1984 Ventures
Welbe Care closes a US$4.1 million Seed Round
Welbe is a Healthtech company that offers a comprehensive occupational medicine and health platform for companies and their employees. Their platform provides a complete record of the health of employees, relying on data technology and AI to generate extensive health programs.
The fresh funds will be used to consolidate Welbe’s presence in the Mexican market, strengthen its data technology, and close the year with more than 250,000 users on its platform.
This is the first investment in the Mexican market for Volpe Capital, Kortex and GreenRock funds.
Sector: HealthTech - Platform
Total Raised: US$7.1 million
Founders: Marcus Paiva, Eduardo Medeiros Cardoso
Investors: Nazca, Marathon Ventures, H20 Capital, Volpe Capital, SVLC, Kortex, GreenRock
Nubank US$330 million equity capitalization
The Brazilian digital bank announced a new round of financing for its Mexican subsidiary to double down on its expansion’s plan due to even more impressive growth in the country than in Brazil in its first years.
The Mexican banking regulator CNBV approved the expansion of Nu’s product portfolio, including the launch of digital savings accounts and debit cards that the company announced last month.
This equity capitalization will serve to grow the company’s portfolio and to achieve greater penetration in different segments in Mexico, bringing the total investment in the country to $1.3B.
Startup News
Clip launches its newest B2B product
Called Clip Empresas, the new platform eases the acceptance of multi-location payments and subsidiaries management.
The idea is to bundle a series of products and services already offered by the FinTech into a single platform and thus better serve their current users while being more appealing to bigger companies.
Bitso partners with Félix Pagos for its newest remittance product
The leading crypto-exchange in Mexico and LatAm is now offering its users a way to send money internationally using WhatsApp. To do so, they have partnered with specialized remittance services firm Félix Pago.
By combining blockchain technology with the ease of use of the messaging platform WhatsApp, they are able to complete a transfer in under one minute, for a US$2.99 fee.
To better understand how such an innovation can have a social impact on the typical Mexican’s life, read our latest Deep Dive on the subject.
Kavak’s CEO is back in Mexico
Following a series of lay-offs at the C-level of the company, including Mexico’s General Manager Alejandro Guerra, Kavak’s co-founder Carlos García Ottati will bring their focus back from the global market to the Mexican one.
This year has been a tough year for Latin America's most valuable startup with adverse economic conditions, internal mismanagement and many customer complaints.
Surrounded by a group of ex-Linio and early employees, Kavak co-founders are setting a goal of putting the company back on track to reach profitability in the Mexican market by the end of 2023.
Rest of the World
Telecom Yo Mobile is leaving the Mexican market
Part of the group Yonder Media, the telecom company will leave 120,000 customers behind. When landing in Mexico in 2020, the company goal was to reach 1.5 million users and it was backed by a US$5 million investment.
But the war in Ukraine (where most of Yo Mobile employees were based) stopped the company in its expansion plan and is now bringing them to a full end.
Cristina Campero is the co-founder & CEO of PROSPERiA, a Mexico-based startup focused on democratizing access to healthcare through technology and A.I. Before PROSPERiA, Cristina worked for McKinsey as an associate focused on the Pharma & Medtech sector. She also holds a Masters in BioScience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge.
What problem are you solving and why did you decide to work on it?
Prosperia was created to solve challenging healthcare problems in emerging markets through AI-based solutions and have a positive impact on society and patients’ outcomes.
Specifically, PROSPERiA's current solutions are focused on building a future where data and AI will allow the prevention of blindness for everyone, everywhere. Their AI-based solution allows for early detection of visual complications through risk assessment calculators, non-invasive fundus cameras, retinal image analysis and personalized recommendations.
What would you have liked to know before starting your company?
I did an undergrad in Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Science. Even though it was very helpful to ignite my passion for healthcare and foster my rational thinking, it would have been very useful to know more about finance and management too.
Additionally, something that I had to learn and improve over the last 3 years has been people management, inspirational leadership and how to foster a productive and happy culture.
What do outsiders often fail to understand about your project?
People often do not understand the value of our solutions given their preventive nature. Unfortunately, one of the biggest barriers we have encountered is that Mexican healthcare culture remains mostly reactive-based solutions: patients rarely seek healthcare services before feeling something is wrong.
Also, our solutions are often mistakenly thought to replace ophthalmologists when they are really designed to increase access to a timely diagnosis, even 10 years before the patient notices a change in their vision, and assist patient's navigation to reach an adequate treatment.
What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?
I am a big adrenaline junkie, so I love talking about extreme sports. Particularly I enjoy sharing experiences in sports I practice like hangliding, mountain biking, scuba diving, motorcycles and Rally Racing.
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