Scenius Mexico Ep. 1
Your bi-weekly newsletter on technology, innovation, and startups in Mexico.
Mexico is the birthplace of international startups enjoying a strong mix of low operating costs, strategic geographic location, and a growing pool of creative and talented individuals.
Last year alone, the startups’ ecosystem has seen its number of unicorns go from 1 to 6 and is entering 2022 in full growth mode.
In this episode, we will talk about what happened in December 2021 and lay the ground for the year to come.
You can read this email online
Funding Rounds
Clara raises a US$70 Million Serie B to expand in Brazil
Founded in stealth mode from Mexico City in 2020 [link], Clara, an end-to-end spend management solution, started its operations in March 2021.
Less than a year later, Clara became Mexico’s newest unicorn, making it the fastest LatAm Startup to reach a US$1 billion valuation.
Led by Coatue VC, this new round comes with the official launch of the Brazilian market where the Startup will face competitors such as Cora and Conta Simples.
In its native market, Mexico, Clara now competes with Mendel, a newcomer that raised just over US$35 million in debt and equity after participating in Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 cohort.
Sector: FinTech
Total Raised: US$103.5 Million in Equity + $50 Million in revolving debt facility [link]
Founders: Gerry Giacomán Colyer [link], Diego Iván García Escobedo [link]
Investors: Coatue VC, Alter Global, DST, Monashees, Avid Ventures, Global Founders Capital, General Catalyst
Quinio raises a US$20 Million Equity and Debt round to acquire more companies
Founded in 2020, the Startup operates in the growing e-commerce aggregator space to acquire and scale high-performing Latin American brands selling on MercadoLibre, Shopify or Amazon.
This funding, led by Cometa, will be used to add more than 30 brands to its portfolio in 2022.
Other investors participating in the round include AlleyCorp, DILA Capital, Western Technology Investment, GBM Ventures, Bridge Partners, and a group of entrepreneurs, including Adalberto Flores, founder and CEO of Kueski.
Quinio unique value proposition is to mainly acquire companies with locally sourced products.
Sector: E-commerce Aggregator
Total Raised: $20 million in debt-and-equity [link]
Founders: Juan Gavito [link], Iker Garay [link], Santiago Gavito [link]
Investors: Cometa, AlleyCorp, DILA Capital, Western Technology Investment, GBM Ventures, Bridge Partners, Adalberto Flores (BA)
Kueski raises a US$202 million Equity and Debt funding for its BNPL business
The round is split between a US$102 million equity Serie C led by Private equity firm StepStone Group and a US$100 million debt facility provided by Victory Park Capital.
Kueski is a “buy now, pay later” and online consumer lending company operating since 2012.
With the latest financing, Kueski has now raised over $300 million in equity and debt capital.
This round follows competitor Nelo’s US$20 million Serie A in October [link], Atrato US$2.7 million Seed round in April [link], and Colombian startup Addi’s US$200 million Serie C to fuel its expansion in Mexico [link].
Sector: Fintech
Total Raised: $300 million in debt-and-equity
Founder: Adalberto Flores [link]
Investors: StepStone Group, One Prime Capital, Glisco Partners, Altos Ventures, Richmond Global Ventures, Cometa, Cathay Innovation, Rise Capital, Angel Ventures Mexico
Incode Technologies raises a US$220 million Serie B at US$1.25 billion valuations
Founded by Ricardo Amper in 2015, the Startup focus on an artificial intelligence solutions platform for digital identity verification.
The firm is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with principal operations in Mexico City and several countries in Latin America and Europe.
The round was led by General Atlantic and SoftBank with JP Morgan, Capital One, Coinbase, SVCI, and the founders of dLocal also participating.
Sector: Cyber Security
Total Raised: US$257 million [link]
Founder: Ricardo Amper [link]
Investors: General Atlantic, SoftBank, JP Morgan, Capital One, Coinbase, SVCI, the founders of dLocal, DN Capital, 3L Capital, and Framework Ventures
Merama raises closes a US$225 million Serie B in an all-equity round and becomes a Unicorn
Like Quinio, Merama is an e-commerce aggregator focusing on direct-to-consumer businesses in Latin America.
The all-equity round was co-led by Advent International and SoftBank Group, with participation from Globo Ventures, Monashees, Valor Capital, Balderton Capital, and MAYA Capital.
In total, the company has raised $445 million, of which $345 million in equity and $100 million in debt. [link]
To date, Merama has acquired stakes in more than 20 brands operating in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and the U.S. Together these businesses are expected to generate over US$250 million of revenue in 2021.
Sector: E-commerce Aggregator
Total Raised: US$345 million Equity + US$100 million Debt.
Founders: Sujay Tyle [link], Felipe Delgado [link], Olivier Scialom [link], Renato Andrade [link], Guilherme Nosralla [link]
Investors: Advent International, SoftBank Group, Globo Ventures, Monashees, Valor Capital, Balderton Capital, and MAYA Capital
Mendel secures US$35 million in debt and equity
Mendel is a corporate spend management solution for enterprises in Latin America.
The round is split between a US$15 million Series A and US$20 million in debt financing.
To differentiate itself from local competitors, such as Clara and Delt.ai, the Startup chose to focus on serving Enterprises over SMBs.
Alan Karpovsky, Mendel’s co-founder, says the company payment volume (GTV) has increased by 100x in the last three months.
Presently, Mendel has 70 employees and it expects to end 2022 with 200. It also plans to use its new capital to “invest heavily” in product development, including expansion into broader B2B payments, as well as toward marketing and awareness.
Sector: FinTech
Total Raised: US$18 million Equity + US$20 million Debt. Seed [link], Serie A [link]
Founders: Alejandro Zecler [link], Gonzalo Castiglione [link], Helena Polyblank [link], Alan Karpovsky [link]
Investors: ALLVP, Infinity Ventures, Thejo Kote (Airbase founder and CEO), Matias Woloski (Auth0 co-founder and CTO), Pedro Arnt (Mercado Libre’s CFO), Federico Ranero (Kavak’s COO), Keri Gohman (Bain Capital)
GuruHotel raises a US$2.1 million Seed round
The Startup helps independent hotels to rebuild their website, drive more direct bookings from online travel agencies (OTAs), and generate more revenue.
GuruHotel launched in Mexico in July 2019, graduated from Y Combinator in 2020 and were able to raise a US$550,000 pre-seed round to support them during the pandemic.
Unlike providers such as Booking.com and Expedia.com which charge fees between 15% and 40%; GuruHotel promises to charge only 5% of each reservation.
Sector: Tourism and Hotel
Total Raised: US$2.6 million
Founders: Josue Gio [link], Stiven Martínez [link]
Investors: Anthemis Group, Magic Fund, 500 Startups, Shruti Challa
Nowports closes a US$60 million Serie B
The Monterrey-based startup had recently raised a US$23 million Series A from Monashees with the plan to expand to Brazil.
This new round led by Tiger Global will serve this plan while also keep increasing their financing services, imports now, pay later offering, and digitizing their customers’ insurance coverage.
After funding Nuvocargo (see the news below), Tiger Global is going all-in on the Logistics space in Latin America.
For its part, Nowports focuses on automating warehouses with sensors to track connected shipments in real-time.
Sector: Logistics
Total Raised: US$92.6 million
Founders: Alfonso De los Rios [link], Maximiliano Casal [link]
Investors: Tiger Global, SoftBank, DST, Mouro Capital, monashees, Base10 Partners, Broadhaven Ventures, Soma Capital, Partech, Tekton, Foundation Capital, and Paul Buchheit (Gmail creator).
GENERAL NEWS
Delt.ai partners with Mastercard to offer corporate financial tools in Mexico
Delt.ai is a financial services startup that offers business owners access to credit lines, corporate credit cards, and accounting analytics to help businesses better manage their finances.
This partnership will allow them to combine their technology with the authority to oversee balance management, transaction authorization, and fraud detection for their customers.
Nuvocargo raises US$20.5 million from Tiger Global
While the Startup was started in New York, USA, by an Ecuador native, and thus is not a Mexican Startup per se, its logistics platform focus on the US-Mexico trade.
This news is relevant for the Mexican Startup Scene for two reasons, 1) Nuvocargo has a lot of operations and team members based in Mexico, and 2) the round was led by Tiger Global, one of the hottest VCs right now.
Nuvocargo growth will create more experienced operators in Mexico while pushing the country on Tiger Global’s radar.
I believe we will see an increasing number of cross-border startups operating in Mexico founded by non-Mexican in the coming years.
VC NEWS
Managing Director Fernando Lelo de Larrea leaves ALLVP after anonymous allegations from a university student at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM)
On November 10, 2021, students from ITAM participated in a protest called “El Tendedero” (or clothesline), a space where women publicly and anonymously denounce acts of alleged harassment or misconduct perpetrated by other students, professors and/or university authorities.
A photograph of these allegations involving Lelo de Larrea was shared on social networks, ITAM student groups, and particularly on Twitter.
Some days later, ALLVP released a statement on their website announcing Fernando Lelo de Larrea’s separation from the fund citing personal reasons. [link]