Ep. 39: Big news today - and no, it's not related to the SVB collapse.
Welcome to Miranda Scenius Mexico: Your weekly newsletter on technology, innovation, and startups in Mexico.
You might have noticed something new in today's edition: we rebranded. As part of our rebranding, we are proud to announce our partnership with Miranda Media - the corporate communications division of the Mexico City-based strategic consultancy Miranda Partners. Miranda Scenius will continue to operate independently but be supported by their team to seek to make the newsletter a leader in information on the Mexican startup ecosystem.
Returning to the main topic of this newsletter, like last week, as far as we know, no Mexican startups announced new equity rounds, and with SVB collapse, we don’t expect to see many new announced rounds in the coming weeks. However, Clara secured new debt financing and many LatAm startups are successfully raising capital to fuel their expansions to Mexico.
Lastly, Mexico has a new early-stage Venture Capital firm ready to deploy US$25 million, backed by Asian Limited Partners (LPs). While local funding has dried up, international interest in Mexico is accelerating, every week more successful startups are entering the market and more international investors are betting on Mexico’s future.
Startup News
Dooper to pivot from a Marketplace model to a B2B SaaS
Founded in Guadalajara, what started as a marketplace helping companies connect to and manage a group of independent distributors, Dooper is now offering a social e-commerce and drop shipping tool for independent distributors to expand their own business.
Venture Debt Rounds
Clara bags $90 million in debt financing
The Mexican unicorn Clara has secured US$90 million in fresh debt funding led by Accial Capital. The new funding is the second debt facility secured in less than a year by Clara after securing a $150 million debt line from Goldman Sachs in August 2022. The funds will serve to boost its expansion in Latin America, increase its footprint in Brazil, where it wants to more than double its customer base, and grow in Colombia. Clara CEO, Gerry Giacomán, said that Brazil was on track to become its biggest market by the end of 2024.
Sector: FinTech - Corporate Spend Management
Total raised to date: US$103 million Equity + US$240 million Debt
Founders: Gerry Giacomán Colyer, Diego Iván García Escobedo
Investors: Accial Capital, Goldman Sach
VC - M&A News
Latin Leap: Mexico’s new early-stage VC
In the middle of the chaos, Mexico welcomed a new investment firm to its ecosystem. Latin Leap has been operating in stealth mode for a year deploying US$5 million to startups like Meru, Valoreo, Talently, and Cubo. This first year gave them the track record needed to launch a bigger fund and helped them find their thesis. Now armed with US$25 million in capital, the team will be focusing on early-stage FinTechs, HealthTechs, EdTechs, PropTechs, Mobility Techs, and AI-focused startups in Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Peru.
Worth noting is the presence of Asian investors in the Limited Partners group that invested in the new funds.
Walmart buys an anonymous Mexican FinTech
The American multinational retail corporation already has a FinTech in Mexico called Cashi that serves some 5.4 million users. Guilherme Loureiro, Walmart Mexico CEO, attributed last year's 11.4% increase in Mexican sales mostly to the digital finance unit of the group. Doubling down, and betting on more success, the company decided to buy a local FinTech, a certified IFPE (Electronic Payment Financial Institution) by the regulator. Nevertheless, the leadership team will not disclose the name of the FinTech or the amount of the deal until the transaction is done and approved.
Peak Nuevo León is building bridges with Austin
The organization, led by the governments of Nuevo León, Monterrey, and INCmty, has launched a program called Austin-NL Innovation Bridge to connect technology founders from both sides of the border to collaborate and develop innovative solutions. As part of the initiative, the organization is offering the opportunity for 20 Mexican startups to attend the next South by Southwest (SXSW) event in Austin.
Rest of the World
Argentinian Wiri Salud raises money and moves to Mexico
Wiri Salud is a platform offering on-demand medical attention at a fair price. So far, the startup has onboarded 10,000 health professionals who advise 80,000 patients per month. Armed with a US$1 million investment from a family office and some friends & family, Wiri Salud CEO, Mathias Sielecki, moved to Mexico last year to prepare for his company’s expansion and to start working with four pilot companies.
Ecuadorian startup Aora raises capital to come to Mexico
The startup building a platform for plumbers, electricians, and other tradespersons to offer their services and skills online raised a pre-seed round of US$850,000 to grow in Mexico. Founded in Ecuador in 2020, the team decided to quickly launch in Mexico last year and now have the capital needed to expand in the market. So far, the app has 60,000 users and 115 technicians which generated a revenue of US$400,000 at the end of last year.
Kushki wants to become an acquirer in Mexico
The PayTech company wants to be even more integrated into the Mexican payment ecosystem by becoming what’s known as an “acquirer.” An acquirer accepts payments for the merchant through the payment processor (in this case Kushki’s core business) and credit network and maintains the merchant account. The move will free Kushki from having an acquiring bank as a partner for each transaction. To fully operate as an acquirer, the startup still needs approval from the local regulator the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV).
FinTech KLYM raises from JP Morgan and comes to Mexico
The Colombian financial services platform secures a US$27 million Series B round led by JP Morgan and the IFC to expand its operations into Mexico and achieve profitability in 2023. So far, the company operates in Chile, Colombia, and Brazil and is on a mission to change the architecture of the trade finance market. Mexico was an evident next step, and the team now has the capital and support required to grow in this key market.
Chilean Toku raises funds to consolidate operations in Mexico
Ok, that’s the last one. I didn’t even know what to write in the title. For two weeks in a row, no Mexican startups announced new equity rounds while startups from the rest of LatAm are all raising to grow in the Mexican market. In the coming years, Mexico will be the battleground of every LatAm startup between Series A and B. Toku will be well positioned with its recent US$7 million financing round to grow its product, helping companies to automatize payments and facilitate debt collection.
Mauricio Madrigal, the current CEO & Co-Founder of RetryPay, is not an entrepreneur by choice. After he didn't finish university and thought that he wouldn't get very far without a college degree, he started 20 years ago working as a freelancer armed with technology. With a technical background as a self-taught front-end programmer, he met his co-founder, and they started their entrepreneur career together with a software factory shop, then an e-commerce platform, a real estate catalog, and some other businesses along the way. Basically, they were trying to solve problems with technology but without a deep knowledge of the startup world, VCs, or fast growth, etc.
What would you have liked to know before starting your company?
That is not as easy as it looks, the burden gets bigger and harder every day that goes by, and all the things you read in the news and on LinkedIn are only showing success cases, without showing all that is happening behind the scenes. It is not as fancy as it seems, it’s quite breathtaking, and it’s really hard. As much previous experience you can bring with you the better, it's worth a lot, and you need to be humble about your knowledge, and about your lack of knowledge that will make you ask for help. This is the hardest thing I think you need to comprehend and execute. Asking for help.
What outsiders often fail to understand about your company?
Being in the payment industry without actually processing any money is hard to explain, but after telling the story of our past startup where we were losing almost 40% of all payment intentions, what we do now just makes sense.
What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?
There are a bunch of topics I can talk about, like food or F1, but for the sake of this newsletter, I’ll just say that I love to talk about product, product vision, and how we can help people solve different kinds of problems, I love how just technology can be there for you.
What’s the weirdest job you’ve ever had to do?
I got kicked out of high school (I would never get good grades) and my father asked me to work, so I sold houses to teachers back in my hometown of Culiacan. I would go for a couple of hours to another high school (less strict) with open enrollment, and then go to a teacher's union meeting to sell houses, I would be demoing the houses with a small architectural model (ugly by the way) and get a commission on each sale.
What makes you bullish on the Mexican startup ecosystem?
Over the last 20 years, from when we started, all the way up to today, the Mexican ecosystem has grown from a toddler into a more mature teenager. I've been watching it and somehow am a part of it. I'm very excited that today you can find great talent, with great experience in how to scale or grow companies. I think we are in the right place at the right time, just like in the 2000s in Silicon Valley, and I'm happy to be here to live it and hope to be a part of its success story.
See you for the next edition. Have a question or any feedback? Just hit reply. We'd love to chat!