Dealflow.la #9 - Argentina 🇦🇷 invents FX rate just for soybean exporters, Linkedin for low-skilled workers HoyTrabajas 🇨🇴 raises $5.5M, and Costa Rica 🇨🇷 reinstates mask mandate.
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Funding
Remote Waters 🇨🇱 raised a $80,000 Seed round from CORFO 🇨🇱, with previous funding from Start-up Chile 🇨🇱, to provide water purification systems with low operation/maintence costs and fast installation for rural communities.
Embarca AI 🇧🇷 raised $3.3 Million from Esmeralda 🇧🇷 and Princesa dos Campos 🇧🇷 to allow Brazilians to book travel tickets online, starting with primarily bus tickets.
SolarView 🇧🇷 raised $750,000 from Cedro Capital 🇧🇷 to build monitoring services for the production and consumption of electrical energy from photovoltaic systems.
Reworth 🇲🇽 raised a $2.8 Million Seed round led by ALLVP 🇲🇽 with funding from Creditas 🇧🇷, K5 Ventures 🇺🇸, NOA Capital 🇲🇽, FJ Labs 🇺🇸, Soma Capital 🇺🇸, Gilgamesh Ventures 🇺🇸, Rally Cap Ventures 🇺🇸, Verve Capital 🇺🇸, Evening Fund 🇺🇸, Lotux 🇲🇽, Magma Venture Partners 🇮🇱, Bluewatch Ventures 🇺🇸, JAM Fund 🇺🇸, Latitud 🇧🇷, CEO of Bitso Daniel Vogel 🇲🇽, CEO of Justo Ricardo Weder 🇲🇽 and Co-Founder of Tinder Justin Mateen 🇺🇸 to simplify the way banks and merchants interact with their customers, enabling them to understand, predict and influence consumer behavior through the use of cashback.
Fidu 🇦🇷 raised a $5 Million Seed round from Lightspeed Venture Partners 🇺🇸, NFX 🇺🇸, Imaginable Futures 🇺🇸, Broom Ventures 🇺🇸, Co-Founder of Auth0 Matias Woloski 🇦🇷, Co-Founder of Truora Daniel Bilbao 🇨🇴, Co-Founder of Rappi Felipe Villamarin 🇨🇴, and Founder & CEO of Frubana Fabian Gomez Gutierrez 🇨🇴 to build their educational management operating system, enabling institutions to digitally handle everything from finances to school-wide announcements.
HoyTrabajas 🇨🇴 raised a $5.5 Million Seed round from Starling Ventures 🇺🇸, Share Capital 🇨🇳, SCM Advisors 🇬🇧, Rebel Fund 🇺🇸, New Ventures 🇲🇽, Newtype Ventures 🇺🇸, MAGIC Fund 🇺🇸, K20 Fund 🇺🇸, Co-Founder & CEO of Fitbit James Park 🇺🇸, Flucas Ventures 🇺🇸, Dragon Capital🇺🇦, AngelHub 🇭🇰, Co-Founder of Dropbox Arash Ferdowsi 🇺🇸, and Co-Founder of Truora Daniel Bilbao 🇨🇴 to build Linkedin for low-skilled workers in Latin America. They allows users to exchange information about resumes and job openings in real-time as well as allow companies recruit their low-skilled workers in less than 72 hours.
Tienda Pago 🇲🇽 raised a $12 Million Series B round led by IDC Ventures 🇩🇰 and Women's World Banking 🇺🇸 with funding from Kazek 🌎, Accion 🇺🇸, Agrega Partners 🇩🇴, Alumni Fund Management 🇺🇸, Co_Capital 🇲🇽, and QED 🇺🇸 to provide small merchants in emerging markets with mobile cashless payments and lending solutions.
Volpi 🇧🇷 raised $30 Million from RBR Asset Management 🇧🇷 to provide secured credit services in the real estate market.
Sociopolitical News
🇦🇷 Argentina
Petrobras leaving Argentina to seek more profitable investments. (MercoPress)
Argentina’s currency mess sucks sales out of Uruguay’s malls; Uruguayans going to shop in cheaper Argentina leave less money for their domestic malls says Uruguay’s top mall manager sees sales falling short of 2019. (Bloomberg)
IMF warns Argentina of ad-hoc FX rates amid 100% inflation. “We continue to believe that this is the way forward not to have ad-hoc and separate measures,” Goldfajn told Bloomberg News in an interview on the sidelines of the IMF’s annual meetings in Washington. “If you have them, you should do it in a temporary basis and unwind them going forward.” The IMF board approved a waiver for Argentina’s program last week for its “multiple currency practices,” after the government invented a new exchange rate just for soybean exporters in September. (Yahoo)
🇧🇷 Brazil
Brazil's Neymar arrives at Barcelona court to face trial on fraud and corruption charges. (Reuters)
Lula losing Brazil’s biggest state forces urgent campaign rejig. São Paulo unexpectedly fell to Bolsonaro in the first round. Now Lula’s campaign is rushing to shore up support in the state ahead of the presidential runoff. (Bloomberg)
Lula's lead over Bolsonaro falls marginally ahead of Brazil's runoff election -poll. (Reuters)
Bolsonarism has already won in Brazil, even if Bolsonaro loses as he has gained seats in Congress amid a broader rightward shift that will keep him influential even if Lula wins. (Al Jazeera)
🇨🇱 Chile
Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s approval rating sunk to an all-time low as voters say one of Latin America’s richest nations is worse off three years after massive protests against inequality and poor government services. (Bloomberg)
Boric Says reforms are vital as Chile braces for day of violence on third anniversary of unrest. Protests broke out on Tuesday, but were relatively small. (Bloomberg)
Scattered clashes in Chile mark third anniversary of riots. (Reuters)
🇨🇴 Colombia
President Gustavo Petro and Vice President Francia Márquez presented a bill for creating the Ministry of Equality and Equity in the Constitution Hall of the National Capitol in Bogotá. (TeleSur)
Daniel Rendon Herrera, once the "most feared narco-terrorist in Colombia," sentenced to 35 years in U.S. prison. (CBS)
Murder rate plummets in Medellin amid 'gangster peace'. (France 24)
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Costa Rica reinstates mask mandate in schools and public transport. (Tico)
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
Fuel smugglers cash in on Haitian chaos. Gangs in Haiti blockade and loot key fuel supplies, the fuel crisis is now trickling over to the neighboring Dominican Republic. (ABC)
🇸🇻 El Salvador
The government of El Salvador has launched a tender to expand the passenger terminal at San Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez International Airport, which serves capital San Salvador. (BNA)
El Salvador: 55,000 suspected gang members arrested since March. The crackdown continues as parliament extended emergency powers that allow authorities to arrest suspects without warrants. (Al Jazeera)
El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment: $60 million lost, $375 million spent, little to show so far. (CNBC)
🇬🇹 Guatemala
The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has suspended the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Guatemala. The suspension, which officially came into effective on Oct. 15, 2022, comes after the IOC claims that the NOC of Guatemala failed to solve a domestic legal dispute. (Al Día)
Ex-Guatemalan minister sentenced to one year for role in paying bribes through Miami bank. (Miami Herald)
🇲🇽 Mexico
US and Mexico make deal to ease Venezuela migration. It is hoped the deal will ease pressure at the US-Mexico border, where a steady flow of Venezuelans continues to arrive as they flee the crisis-hit nation. Starting immediately, flights will be arranged for 24,000 migrants to arrive in the United States. (BBC)
Mexico's Congress has voted in favour of extending the presence of the military on the streets until 2028. Troops have been carrying out public security duties for years as part of Mexico's war against drugs and the gangs which control their trade. (BBC)
Mexico seen falling into cecession alongside US in 2023. US recession would drag down Mexico, Bloomberg Economics says BE models show US faces 100% chance of recession next year. (Bloomberg)
Mexico president backs defense ministry's refusal to account for massive data leak. (Reuters)
Mexico mulls ending daylight saving time, that may pass this week, could potentially affecting cross-border shipments. (FreightWaves)
🇳🇮 Nicaragua
In Nicaragua, families of jailed opposition leaders fear for their relatives' lives. President Daniel Ortega alleged they and dozens of other political prisoners were behind 2018 street protests that he claims were a plot to overthrow him. (NBC)
Another Catholic priest has been ‘kidnapped’ by Nicaragua’s government, says exiled churchman. (CNA)
France expresses 'deep concern' over detained dual-nationals in Nicaragua. (Reuters)
Nicaragua calls for expansion of ties with Iran. (Tehran Times)
🇵🇾 Paraguay
Paraguay is a haven for international crime, Paraguayan Congressional report finds. (MercoPress)
🇵🇪 Peru
Peru has had five presidents in seven years. Is Castillo next to go? (Washington Post)
🇵🇷 Puerto Rico
More than 100 migrants stranded near Puerto Rico await help. Federal authorities say they are trying to rescue more than 100 migrants stranded on an uninhabited island near Puerto Rico during a human smuggling operation. (ABC)
Puerto Rico's agriculture minister says Hurricane Fiona destroyed $159 million worth of crops in Puerto Rico when it hit a month ago, decimating fields of plantains, bananas and other crops. (ABC)
Puerto Rico to investigate power bill complaints after hurricane outage. A growing number of customers in the U.S. territory complain about being charged for electricity when they didn’t have power and receiving higher than normal power bills. (NBC)
🇻🇪 Venezuela
More than seven million Venezuelans have left their homeland since 2015 amid an ongoing economic and political crisis, according to new UN data. (BBC)
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