Scenius Mexico - Palenca, Klar, and Fairplay in the news
Your weekly newsletter on technology, innovation, and startups in Mexico.
You might have noticed - there’s a small change in the tagline. I switched the Newsletter from bi-weekly to weekly.
Why? Because there are too many things happening in Mexico right now. If I were to keep the bi-weekly format, I would either ends-up with a very long one or skip some interesting content.
Scenius Mexico already got some traction and my goal is to highlights all the amazing startups building in Mexico.
Going forward, I will dedicate more time to it and do my best to send you an insightful and worth your time Newsletter every week.
You can read this email online
Funding Rounds
Palenca raises US$2.6 million to strengthen its growth in Latin America
Palenca is building a payroll API to smoothen the process of employees data validation in Latin America. The company started on the micro-credit market before focusing on offering an API due to strong interest from early customers.
This Seed Round follows its participation in Y Combinator S21 Cohort. YC program coupled with a select group of business angels having invested in the round gives the team a powerful network to help them accelerate their development in the coming months.
To date, the product is available in Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina. [link]
Sector: FinTech - Payroll API
Total Raised: US$2.6 million
Founders: José Carlos Aguilar, Antoine Nguyen Hong Duc, Pierre Delarroqua
Investors: 500 Startups, Gilgamesh Ventures, Uncommon Capital, Moving Capital, Kima Ventures, Gerry Giacoman (Clara Co-Founder), Courtney Mclogan (Runa CEO), Federico Antoni (ALLVP Founder), Eduardo Peláez (BA)
Klar raises a US$70 million Equity and Debt Round
The startup provides a transparent, free and secure alternative to traditional debit and credit services in Mexico and has experienced an 8x growth of its customer base over the last year. [link]
A part of this funding is still subject to applicable regulatory approvals from the Mexican Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) and the Mexican Economic Competition Commission (COFECE).
Following the approval of the transaction, Mr. Cervantes and Sofia Garrido, Vice President at General Atlantic, will join Klar’s Board of Directors.
In total, Klar has raised more than US$27.5 million since its inception in 2019, including a $15 million Series A round last year
Sector: FinTech - Challenger Bank
Total Raised: US$27.5 million
Founders: Daniel Autrique, Stefan Moller
Investors: General Atlantic, Prosus Ventures, International Finance Corporation, Quona Capital, WTI, and Muoro Capital.
Mexican revenue-based investment startup Fairplay secured $35 million in Series A
The investment round consists of $15 million in equity, co-led by Dila Capital and Kayyak Ventures, and $20 million in debt led by Architect Capital.
Fairplay co-founder and CEO Manolo Atala started the company with Andrew Devlyn in 2019 and has raised US$40 million so far. [link]
Aside from leveraging the debt, the new funding will go toward growing Fairplay’s headcount. Atala expected to double its 38 employees in the next few months.
Sector: FinTech - Lending
Total Raised: US$40 million
Founders: Manolo Atala, Andrew Devlyn
Investors: Dila Capital, Kayyak Ventures, QED Investors, Nazca, Kavak CEO Carlos García, Jüsto CEO Ricardo Weder, and ZeBrands CEO Carlos Salinas
General News
QuintoAndar rebrands and focuses its international expansion on Mexico
The Brazilian Real Estate startup is eyeing the Mexican market and is armed with a recent $300 million Series E round led by Ribbit Capital.
The logical next step will be an acquisition to kickstart its growth. Last year alone the Startup closed 4 acquisitions.
2021 was all about FinTech in Mexico but, as the year begins, we can already witness a trend developing in the Real Estate and E-Commerce categories.
Ualá buy a bank to be able to open new accounts in Mexico
The Argentine startup stopped opening new accounts last year when the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV) blocked its service provider, UnDosTres.
With more than 300.000 customers already onboarded in Mexico, the startup decided to do a bold move and bought a bank - ABC Capital.
The startup will now resume its aggressive growth to position itself as a major player in the Challenger Bank segment.
OKOL, a Mexican Real Estate Tech startup get acquired by SoftBank-backed Habi
There are two ways to acquire market shares in a new market: invest heavily in competing with local companies or buy out local competitors.
Armed with its US$100 million series B, Habi a Colombian-based startup chose the former option to get a jumpstart into the Mexican market.
OKOL is the parent company of the online marketplace Propiedades.com, and broker Tu Canton.
The deal was settled for an undisclosed sum and will make Habi the largest iBuyer in Mexico.
Venture Capital (VC) News
Monashees is looking for a stronger footprint into the Mexican startup ecosystem
They recently posted a job offer for an A-player role in Mexico City. If you don’t know what is an A-player role, I believe they mean a junior analyst position.
Still, from my investigation, it would be their first hire in Mexico and would be a strategic move to better source deals and build a relationship with their Mexican portfolio companies.
Monashees is a pioneer venture capital firm in Latin America founded in 2005 and based in Brazil.
Some of their last investments include Merama, Clara, Casai, Loft, Loggi, MadeiraMadeira, Neon, Frubana, and Rappi.
You can check out the offer here