Dealflow.la #6 - Harry Styles’ Bogotá 🇨🇴 turmoil, Kavak 🇲🇽 raises $810 Million, and Lula 🇧🇷 will win?

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Funding

Mira BioTech 🇧🇷 raised $525,000 from IndieBio 🇺🇸 and Genesis 🇺🇸 to specialize in the production of all-natural, formaldehyde-free products.

Crecy 🇲🇽 raised a $630,000 Early Stage Round from 500 Global 🇺🇸, Capem 🇲🇽, Mucker Capital 🇺🇸, and Platanus Ventures 🇨🇱 to provide workers in the gig economy crypto-backed credit card services.

Bendo 🇲🇽 raised a $1.1 Million Pre-Seed Round led by Canary 🇧🇷 with funding from Seedstars 🇨🇭 and Angel Hub 🇲🇽 to allow anyone to start a business in 5 minutes on their mobile app.

Wolet 🇵🇪 raised a $2 Million Debt Funding Round from Acorde 🇵🇪 to build their lending solution that integrates with payment processors and retail point-of-sale systems.

BunkerDB 🇺🇾 raised a $4.5 Million Seed Round from Globant 🇦🇷, Draco 🇦🇷, and Cisneros 🇻🇪 to help marketing departments be more efficient in their decision-making by using data and artificial intelligence.

Solfácil 🇧🇷 raised a $285.3 Million Series C Round led by Fifth Wall 🇺🇸 and QED 🇺🇸 with funding from SoftBank 🇯🇵, Valor Capital Group 🇺🇸, and VEF 🇸🇪 to allow people to invest in solar energy through their renewable energy investment platform.

Kavak 🇲🇽 raised $810 Million in Debt Financing from Goldman Sachs 🇺🇸, HSBC🇬🇧, and Santander Bank 🇪🇸 to continue building their online marketplace for used cars.

Sociopolitical News

🇦🇷 Argentina

• Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner who is facing 12 years in prison slams her corruption case as ‘staged fable.’ (Al Jazeera)

• Argentine oil workers strike after refinery explosion kills three. (Reuters)

🇧🇷 Brazil

• Surveys consistently show a lead by leftist ex-president Lula in October 2 election. An array of surveys have shown Lula ahead with about 45% support of the electorate versus about 35% for Bolsonaro. In recent days that gap has extended, with some polls putting the former union leader at 47%, within the margin of error for a first-round victory. If no candidate wins more than 50% in the first round on October 2, the race will go to a second round at the end of the month. (Financial Times)

• “Why Brazilian football fans are ditching the yellow jersey.” Once an icon of unity and luck, the association of the shirt with Brazil’s far-right has led football fans to give up on it. (Al Jazeera)

• An auditorium hosting a campaign event ahead of Brazil's upcoming elections partially collapsed on Tuesday, killing nine people and injuring at least 31, authorities said. The accident hit during a visit to a shipping container company in Sao Paulo state by candidates running for Congress and the state legislature, officials said. (France24)

🇨🇱 Chile

• Chile no longer eequires masks in airplanes and airports. (TravelPulse)

• Chile to issue $12 Billion in debt in 2023. (Reuters)

🇨🇴 Colombia

• Bid to move Harry Styles’ Bogotá tour date to capital’s biggest venue, El Campín stadium, has united supporters of rival clubs in anger as the first leg of the Colombian football championship final is scheduled for the same day. Styles had been scheduled to play in the car park of an amusement park in the capital city, but fans started a social media campaign for the concert to be moved after pop star Dua Lipa’s show there last weekend was plagued by logistical and technical problems. (The Guardian)

• President Petro proposes $13.5 Billion plan to buy farm land at market rate and sell it to farmers at below-market prices. Petro announced the plan amid a spate of land invasions by indigenous people and farmers who have misinterpreted his campaign promises regarding agricultural reform and taken it upon themselves to occupy land. "We'll have to buy them at commercial prices so as to avoid fighting with the big land owners, or they'll call it expropriation."(Reuters/Yahoo News)

• 9 Airlines oppose the Viva-Avianca Partnership. (Simple Flying)

• Colombia is set to be the next major Latin American market Huawei targets with a dedicated physical location for its cloud infrastructure, company executives said during the Huawei Cloud summit in Rio de Janeiro. (BNA)

🇩🇴 Dominican Republic

• Dominican Republic registers heavy infrastructure damage in Fiona aftermath. After heavy rains overwhelmed the water supply system, 1.1mn people suffered supply cuts, but services were restored for 400,000 people by last Wednesday, according to government information. (BNA)

• New York City scrambles to send aid to Caribbean after Hurricane Fiona. (New York Times)

• Dominican Republic’s new flagship low-fare airline Arajet officially launched operations in the Caribbean skies, leading the rebirth of Dominican aviation with a powerful connecting hub in Santo Domingo. Arajet currently flies to El Salvador and Cali, Colombia and will soon serve Saint Maarten, Lima, Mexico City, Monterrey, Cancun, and Guatemala City. (Loop)

🇭🇳 Honduras

• A judge has sentenced former Honduran First Lady Rosa Elena Bonilla de Lobo to 14 years in prison on corruption charges, the second time Bonilla had been sentenced. (ABC)

🇲🇽 Mexico

• Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday he had reached an agreement with companies to maintain the prices of basic food items, as inflation continues to rise. (Reuters)

• Amlo promised to take Mexico’s army off the streets – but he made it more powerful. Soon after taking office, Andrés Manuel López Obrador created a new force, the national guard – and handed control of it over to the army. (The Guardian)

• Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, a trained physicist vying to become the country's first female president, is hoping her environmental credentials and success in curbing crime will help set her apart in the race for the top job in 2024. (Reuters)

🇳🇮 Nicaragua

• Nicaragua takes Spanish-language CNN off the air amid a government crackdown. (The Hill)

• Bolsonaro tries ‘red scare tactics’ in Brazil’s election by pointing toward Nicaragua’s current attacks against the Church. Brazil’s president claims that leftwing rival Lula will repress clergy like Nicaragua’s President Ortega…so far with little apparent success. (The Guardian)

🇺🇾 Uruguay

• The head of Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou's personal security detail was arrested on Monday at the presidential residence on charges of falsifying documents. (Reuters)

• Soaring demand for Uruguay’s soybeans and beef are helping boost the country’s rural land prices for a second straight year, especially from foreign investors. (Bloomberg)

🇻🇪 Venezuela

• Cargo traffic movement resumes between Colombia and Venezuela. (AP)

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