Dealflow.la #5 - Leoparda 🇧🇷 electrifying LatAm's motorcycles, President Bukele 🇸🇻 seeking illegal 2nd presidential term, and Argentina’s new “Economy Chief” 🇦🇷 wins IMF praise.

Latin America is rising. Subscribe to Dealflow.la to keep up.

Venture Funding

Alima 🇲🇽 raised a $1.5 Million Seed Round from Y Combinator 🇺🇸, Soma Capital 🇺🇸, Seed9 🇺🇸, and Pareto Holdings 🇺🇸 to build their business produce procurement platform.

uDocz raised a $2M Seed Round from Salkantay Ventures 🇵🇪 , GSV Ventures 🇺🇸, and Latitud 🇧🇷 to build their school note & study document sharing platform (think Chegg/CourseHero-for-Latin America.)

DolarApp 🇲🇽 raised a $5 Million Seed Round from Y Combinator 🇺🇸 and Kazek 🌎 to allow Latin Americans to manage their finances in USDC (USD Stable Coin Cryptocurrency,) thus allowing them protect their savings in a stable currency and avoid the high charges involved in making international transfers and card payments.

Naya Homes 🇲🇽 raised a $5 Million Seed Round lead by Flybridge 🇺🇸, with funding from Clocktower 🇺🇸, Derive 🇺🇸, K50 Ventures 🇺🇸, Primary Ventures 🇺🇸, and Carao Ventures 🇨🇷 to build their short-term and vacation rental experience for homeowners in Latin America.

Leoparda Electric 🇧🇷 raised a $8.5 Million Venture Round from Auteco Mobility 🇨🇴, Climate Capital 🇺🇸, Construct Capital 🇺🇸, K50 Ventures 🇺🇸, Marcelo Claure 🇺🇸, and Monashees 🇧🇷 to electrify Latin America’s motorcycles. Their model includes electric motorcycle manufacturing capabilities as well as end-to-end electric motorcycle services including resale, maintenance, and insurance of electric motorcycles, along with easily available charging stations, providing users the leisure to exchange their discharged batteries for recharged ones at their convenience.

Finaktiva 🇨🇴 raised $20 million in debt from Bancolombia 🇨🇴 and responsABILITY 🇨🇭to build their financial services platform for SMEs and entrepreneurs in Colombia which provides flexible credit solutions for early-stage startups, to credit solutions, factoring, and debt funds for scaling companies.

Bhub 🇧🇷 raised a $30.28 Million Series A led by Monashees 🇧🇷, with funding from Clocktower Technology Ventures 🇺🇸, Picus Capital 🇩🇪, QED Investors 🇺🇸, and Valor Capital Group 🇺🇸 to build their SaaS-based back office platform designed to unburden entrepreneurs by delegating all the administrative work. The company's platform offers a range of service subscription packages that include accounting, legal, HR, and other processes.

Rappi 🇨🇴 raised ~$114 Million in debt financing from Itaú Colombia 🇨🇴/🇧🇷, Grupo Bancolombia 🇨🇴, Davivienda Corredores 🇨🇴, and Banco de Bogotá 🇨🇴 to fund RappiPay; Rappi's platform for Sending and collecting money, Colombian bank transers, paying utilities/bills, and withdrawing cash at certain ATMs in Colombia.

Sociopolitical News

🇦🇷 Argentina

• “Inflation is the main problem afflicting Argentina's economy,” IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said Tuesday. (Buenos Aires Times)

• Argentina arrests a third suspect in the failed attack on Vice President Kirchner. (AlJazeera)

• Argentina’s new “Economy Chief” wins IMF praise as they back his ‘strong steps’ on the economy. (Bloomberg)

🇧🇷 Brazil

• Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro fumes at British petrol prices during his visit to the Queen's funeral as he recorded a video at a central London petrol station trying to score points with voters ahead of Brazil's election next month. (SkyNews)

• Contrary to reports, Brazil's outspoken far-right leader has “every chance” of being re-elected in upcoming October election, says top analyst. (Buenos Aires Times)

• The Guardian view on Brazil’s election: never mind the voters – Bolsonaro plans to win. (Guardian Editorial)

• GOL, Brazil’s second-largest domestic airline, was charged by the United States Security Exchange Commission for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA.) The São Paulo-based Airline agreed to pay $70 million to settle the SEC charges for bribing prominent Brazilian government officials in exchange for certain favorable payroll tax and aviation fuel tax reductions. (SEC.gov)

🇨🇱 Chile

• Chile's government launched a plan on Monday to promote investment that includes an array of tax breaks. President Gabriel Boric and Finance Minister Mario Marcel said the package aims to boost investment by at least five percentage points during 2023. "This 'Invest in Chile' plan brings together management efforts, public resources, and regulatory changes, all of which can be implemented quickly," Marcel said. "This leads us to believe that we will be able to see most of its effects during 2023." (Reuters)

• Chilean President Boric postponed meeting with Israeli envoy following Israeli army killing of Palestinian boy on the same day. (AlJazeera)

🇨🇴 Colombia

• Colombia's peace commissioner has met with leaders of a major dissident faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in a possible step towards peace talks, both sides said in a published statement. (VOA)

• In a meeting held in New York on Sunday, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro explained to United Nations Secretary Antonio Guterres the actions that his administration will take to achieve "Total Peace" in Colombia. (TeleSUR)

🇩🇴 Dominican Republic

• More than 1 million were left without running water after Hurricane Fiona ripped through the Dominican Republic. (CNN)

• The Dominican Republic closed its embassy in Haiti, as well as its consulates in that territory, due to the political and social crisis in the neighboring nation. (Dominican Today)

🇪🇨 Ecuador

• Ecuador reached a $1.4bn debt restructuring deal with China as Beijing is increasingly offering bailouts to countries at risk of financial crises. (Financial Times)

🇸🇻 El Salvador

• El Salvador’s Bukele says he will seek re-election despite a constitutional ban. Experts say President Nayib Bukele’s re-election run would violate at least four articles of El Salvador’s constitution. “Developed countries have re-election,” he said. “And thanks to the new configuration of the democratic institution of our country, now El Salvador will too.” (AlJazeera)

🇲🇽 Mexico

• A magnitude 7.5 earthquake has struck western Mexico on the anniversary of two earlier devastating tremors, killing at least one person and causing flooding on the Pacific coast. (The Guardian)

• A Retired Mexican general was arrested over the disappearance of 43 students in 2014. The ex-officer was head of army base in Iguala when students were abducted in what a report called a ‘state crime.’ (The Guardian)

• Boon or threat? Mexico City wrestles with an influx of remote U.S. workers. (Reuters/Yahoo News)

🇵🇦 Panama

• Panama charges 2 former presidents over a corruption scandal. (Inquirer)

🇵🇷 Puerto Rico

• All of Puerto Rico is without power as Hurricane Fiona slams island. Winds have gusted over 100 mph while the National Hurricane Center warns of ‘catastrophic’ flooding. (Washington Post)

🇵🇪 Peru

• Peru's foreign minister, Miguel Rodriguez, has resigned after just one month in office, the country's foreign ministry said on Friday, after public clashes between the official and leftist president Pedro Castillo. (Reuters)

🇻🇪 Venezuela

• Colombia has asked the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro to be the guarantor of talks with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the last active rebel group in a country torn by decades of conflict. (France24)

• Venezuela ‘ready’ to supply global oil market: Maduro. (Alarabiya)

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