Dealflow.la #66 - Colombian 🇨🇴 town elects a Russian 🇷🇺 mayor, Oakberry 🇧🇷 raises a $66.7M Series C for US 🇺🇸 expansion, & UK 🇬🇧 sends warship to Venezuela 🇻🇪 amid Guyana 🇬🇾 dispute.

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Funding

Salvy 🇧🇷 raised a $1 Million Seed round led by Saasholic 🇧🇷 with funding from Y Combinator 🇺🇸 to build a mobile telephony platform designed to help businesses manage their mobile lines. The company's platform offers a wide range of features, including easy purchase, management, and cancellation of mobile plans, real-time tracking of data usage, purchase of additional data, and round-the-clock customer support.

Start Careers 🇧🇷 raised a $1.4 Million Seed round led by MAYA Capital 🇧🇷 with funding from Reach Capital 🇺🇸 and Graphene Ventures 🇺🇸 to build a recruitment platform intended to connect and provide employability for university students. The company's software allows a marketplace between recruiters and talented students offering vacancies for internships and trainees, enabling recruiters as well as students to connect and get opportunities including internship and summer job programs and effective recruitment events.

Bankme 🇦🇷 raised a $1.5 Million Seed round led by DOMO.VC 🇦🇷 to build an online financial platform designed to assist entrepreneurs in financing their productive ecosystem, without intermediaries. The company's platform helps enterprises across different industries to build their financial structures and operate credit for the ecosystem, taking care of everything from the structuring of the operation to the accounting closing.

DeepAgro 🇦🇷 raised a $2 Million Seed round led by Draco Capital 🇦🇷 with funding from Pampa Start 🇦🇷, Innventure 🇺🇸, and BYX Ventures 🇦🇷 to build a smart spray system designed to build a better future for agriculture. The company's system intervenes with any spraying equipment facilitating to opening and closing of the peak of the application automatically based on the recognition of weeds and can perform selective fumigation at any stage of crop growth.

Anitya 🇧🇷 raised a $2 Million Seed round led by Indicator Capital 🇧🇷 to build a low-code software toolkit designed to empower creators and global brands to create immersive 3D experiences effortlessly. The company's software creates good experiences for training and education collaboration and workshops e-commerce showrooms and more, providing users with low-code software that can be accessed seamlessly from a browser or device, tailor content creation to your needs, and benefit from cost-effective operations with minimal hardware demands.

Levannta 🇨🇱 raised a $2.5 Million Seed round led by Manutara Ventures 🇨🇱 to build a data-driven finance platform designed to convert the customers' recurring payments into liquidity for the business. The company's platform integrates with the existing data full control over the future money and the amount the user wishes in advance, enabling to assist companies that operate under a recurring income model with their job.

Fracción 🇨🇱 raised a $5 Million Seed round led by Manutara Ventures 🇨🇱 to build a pharmacy e-commerce platform intended to allow people to purchase their medicines at fair prices and in the right dose. The company offers a range of products including antibiotics, contraceptives, personal care, dermatology, diabetes, and medical devices, enabling customers to improve access to medicine through independent pharmacies with a centralized dispensing service.

Conexa Saude 🇧🇷 raised a $5.1 Million Venture round led by Vivo Ventures 🇧🇷 to build a telemedicine platform intended to promote medical networking and democratize healthcare access. The company offers an agile scheduling system, patient monitoring, integrated electronic medical records, and digital prescriptions, enabling businesses, doctors, and patients with a complete healthcare system.

Kapital 🇲🇽 raised a $40 Million Series B led by Tribe Capital 🇺🇸 with funding from Tru Arrow Partners 🇺🇸, Niya Partners 🇺🇸, MS&AD Ventures 🇺🇸, Conexo Ventures 🇪🇸, Cervin Ventures 🇺🇸, Alumni Ventures 🇺🇸 to continue building their banking platform designed to gain visibility and control of the treasury. The company's platform offers a business banking technology that manages income and expenses through multi-treasury, financially inclusive products for employees, and credit cards, enabling businesses to accelerate growth with a suite of options.

Oakberry 🇧🇷 raised a $66.7 Million Series C round led by BTG Pactual 🇧🇷 to fuel their U.S. expansion. Founded in 2016, the quick-service bowl-and-smoothie chain said it plans to have more than 200 U.S. stores by 2026.

Sociopolitical News

🇦🇷 Argentina

• Argentina's government raises $3.2 billion through a debt sale to its central bank, aiming to meet debt repayments amid severe economic crises, including soaring inflation and rising poverty. (Reuters)

• Argentina proposes a historic $71 billion local debt swap, aiming to stabilize finances by delaying maturities and cutting the deficit, part of President Javier Milei's economic overhaul. (Bloomberg)

• After President Milei's 54% devaluation of the peso and deregulation, Argentina faces increased currency pressure, risking further inflation and challenging its economic stability and policy effectiveness. (Bloomberg)

• President Javier Milei announces economy deregulation in Argentina, facing protests from left-wing groups against austerity in Buenos Aires, challenging his administration's policies. (AP)

🇧🇴 Bolivia

• Bolivia seizes record 8.8 tons of cocaine, worth $224 million locally, likely destined for Europe, in a major anti-drug operation. (Reuters)

• Bolivia inaugurates its first industrial-scale lithium plant, marking a significant step towards exploiting vast lithium resources, despite challenges in purity and production costs compared to competitors. (Bloomberg)

🇧🇷 Brazil

• Brazil's Rondônia State sues JBS, the world's largest meatpacker, for environmental damages, alleging cattle purchases from illegally deforested Amazon reserve. (New York Times)

• Brazil's government passed a major tax reform to simplify their complex tax system, potentially enhancing economic growth and investment. (AP)

• Brazil delays reintroducing tourist visa requirements for U.S., Australian, and Canadian citizens until April, aiming to facilitate travel and boost tourism. (AP)

• Brazil's federal police arrest top criminal leader Zinho, the head of Rio de Janeiro's largest militia group, following successful negotiations leading to his surrender. (ABC)

• Brazil's Congress approves a bill to relax environmental rules for paving a highway through the Amazon, potentially accelerating deforestation in the world's largest rainforest. (Reuters)

🇨🇱 Chile

• Chileans vote against a new conservative constitution, opting to retain the existing text from the Pinochet era, following earlier rejection of a progressive draft. (Al Jazeera)

• Chile's central bank accelerates interest rate cuts, lowering borrowing costs to 8.25%, amid improving inflation and global economic conditions, signaling potential further reductions. (Bloomberg)

• Chile arrests 51 businesspeople in a major tax evasion case, involving over $260 Billion USD defrauded from more than 100 companies, amid President Boric's fiscal challenges. (Bloomberg)

• Disney faces criticism for suing a small Chilean car wash, "Star Wash," using "Star Wars" themes, alleging copyright infringement and consumer confusion. (New York Post)

• Fitch Ratings maintains Chile's A- credit rating with a stable outlook, undeterred by the constitutional referendum and highlighting Chile's strong fiscal position. (Bloomberg)

🇨🇴 Colombia

• The jungle between Colombia and Panama transforms into a major migration route for global migrants, doubling crossings and posing significant risks. (AP)

• Colombia plans to recover treasures from the 1708 San Jose shipwreck, believed to contain billions in cargo, in a significant underwater archaeological expedition. (Colombia)

• Colombia's ELN rebel leader says kidnappings will stop only if the government funds projects, potentially hindering peace talks and the current ceasefire. (AP)

• Russian Mikhail Krasnov stirs excitement as Tunja's new mayor in Colombia, promising to tackle corruption and rejuvenate the city's economic and political landscape. (AP)

🇪🇨 Ecuador

• Ecuador's most-wanted criminal, Jose Adolfo Macias, leader of the Los Choneros gang, mysteriously disappears from prison, sparking a massive manhunt. (Reuters)

• Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa sparks a bold move, planning a referendum to combat surging crime with tougher laws and military intervention, aiming to reshape national security. (Reuters)

🇸🇻 El Salvador

• El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele extends his reelection campaign globally, leveraging his high-profile status to address critics and promise continued transformation in El Salvador. (AP)

🇬🇹 Guatemala

• Guatemala's legal challenge against Bernardo Arévalo's election as president sparks international condemnation, seen as a coup attempt against the anti-corruption leader. (BBC)

🇲🇽 Mexico

• Mexico shuts down a melon-packing plant linked to a deadly Salmonella outbreak from cantaloupes, affecting hundreds in the U.S. and Canada. (AP)

• Mexico's President inaugurates army-run Mexicana airline, with its first flight to Tulum experiencing reroute and delays, showcasing a new role for armed forces in civilian sectors. (AP)

🇺🇸 Miami

• Luis Suárez signs a one-year deal with Inter Miami, reuniting with former Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi, and possibly extending to 2025. (Yahoo)

🇳🇮 Nicaragua

• In his New Year's address, Pope Francis expressed concern over Nicaragua's crackdown on the Catholic Church, citing arrests and expulsion of clergy as troubling developments. (New York Times)

🇵🇦 Panama

• First Quantum Minerals urgently calls for heightened security measures at its shuttered Cobre Panama mine, bracing for potentially volatile protests by the Suntracs construction union on the tense Martyrs’ Day in Panama. (Bloomberg)

🇵🇾 Paraguay

• In a violent clash at Paraguay's Tacumbu jail, eleven inmates and one police officer were killed during a raid to transfer drug lord Armando Javier Rotela. (BBC)

🇵🇪 Peru

• In a striking move, Peru's telecom authority Osiptel issued hefty fines totaling a massive $2.3 million in 2023, targeting major operators like Movistar, Claro, Entel, and Bitel for a range of regulatory breaches. (BNAmericas)

🇺🇾 Uruguay

• Argentina and Uruguay have resumed joint border control at river ports in Uruguayan cities like Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo. Travelers can undergo immigration checks for both countries simultaneously, significantly reducing processing times, expediting passenger transit and strengthening collaboration post-pandemic. (MercoPress)

• Uruguay's bill allowing dictatorship-era criminals house arrest stirs debate, with critics calling it a setback for justice. (BBC)

🇻🇪 Venezuela

• U.S. judge allows more Venezuela creditors to join Citgo auction, potentially impacting $24 billion in claims against the oil refiner. (Reuters)

• UK sends warship HMS Trent to Guyana amid renewed Venezuelan territorial claims, supporting Guyana's sovereignty and regional stability. (BBC)

• Venezuela and Guyana agree to avoid force in Essequibo dispute; tensions remain despite no progress in resolving territorial claims. (Al Jazeera)

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