#018: How much do LatAm software engineers make?
Brazil’s crypto climb, unicorn M&A plays, and Nu management
Olá technopolists,
You guys seemed to be big fans of the fundraising section, so it looks like it’ll be sticking around. Welcome to the new readers who joined us – and if you’re meeting us for the first time, don’t forget to subscribe!
What’s hot
🔗 Crypto-cariocas. Brazil is in the spotlight this week as Fuse Capital, the Rio de Janeiro-based venture fund, announced the launch of a dedicated web3 fund — the first local crypto fund in LatAm, although it’s reasonably skinny with a target of raising $50mn. But elsewhere, Mercado Libre launched Mercado Coin in the country, their first in-house, tradable cryptocurrency. So far, 500k users in Brazil can access the Ethereum-based coin, and they aim to reach 80mn users in the next 2 weeks. It’ll work like a loyalty scheme: the coin is neither a stablecoin pegged to a fiat currency, nor can it be transferred to any external wallet, but it can be traded for other cryptocurrencies on the Mercado marketplace. (Contxto)
🏷️ The big get bigger. Acquisitions amongst LatAm unicorns continued last week. Kushki, the Ecuadorian payments unicorn that received its horn just this spring, has announced their acquisition of Billpocket, the Mexican payments fintech, for an undisclosed amount. The move is the second known purchase aiming to cement its status as a pan-LatAm payments juggernaut. In proptech, Mexico’s Casai and Brazil’s Nomah announced a merger of equals; a16z and Monashees, two big investors in Nomah’s parent company (Loft), are ploughing fresh funds into the merged company, too. Turns out a16z wasn’t pinning all of its property bets on Adam Neumann last week. (Bloomberg Linea)
🏦 Under Nu management. Positive earnings results don’t seem to be enough to completely right the Nubank ship, so it’s announced a managerial shakeup. Current COO Youssef Lahrech is being promoted to president, while Brazil CEO Cristina Junqueira (one of LatAm’s 500 most influential women) is moving on up to Chief Growth Officer. CEO David Velez wants to focus more on ‘long-term’ strategy, while Lahrech’s new role focuses on ops and budgeting. The move, which Nu explains is meant to improve everything from product development to efficiency, has pleased investors; share price was up 8% after the announcement. (Bloomberg Linea)
What’s not
💰 Funding falloff. Venture funding was down in LatAm -19% year-on-year in the first half of 2022, according to data from LAVCA. What’s more: Q2 funding was down 50% compared to last year. But many VCs are seeing this as a return to normalcy rather than a full-blown catastrophe. The slowdown in late-stage deals and flight of foreign capital (led by SoftBank’s retreat) are the strongest symptoms of the correction. (Bloomberg Linea)
🍔 Just Eat Sell. Just Eat, the British food delivery platform, has announced the sale of its stake in Brazil’s iFood to Prosus, the Dutch investment group for up to €1.8bn, giving them full ownership. The sale is a volte-face for Just Eat, who recently rejected a similar offer of €1.7bn as “too low” and below its target a €3-5bn price tag. (Financial Times)
Stat of the week
The rise of remote work has brought a deluge of demand for LatAm software engineers. The demand has led to a two-tier system where LatAm software engineers increase their salary 2.2-4x by doing the same job for a foreign employer instead of a local one.
To understand just how much of a discrepancy there is, we’re taking a look at local software developer salaries around the region.
Smart links
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The battle for Colombia’s most powerful business group
Betterfly, the Chilean insurance unicorn, lays off 30% of employees
VCs prefer seasoned founders over first-time founders in times of uncertainty
’We are not yet in the darkest moment of the night’, says General Atlantic chairman
Inside Itaús plans to get into the creator economy
Andreessen, Atlántico, MAYA Capital add some dough to Fudo’s restaurant tech recipe
How beauty startups are breaking through in LatAm
Fundraising
Announced from August 15-21, 2022
Seed & pre-seed
🇧🇷 Investo, a Brazilian investment platform, raised a $7.6mn seed round from angels including former directors at BM&FBovespa, General Atlantic, and Harvard
🇦🇷 Rebill, an Argentinian subscription payment platform, raised a $3.6mn seed round led by Tiger with participation from Y Combinator, Soma Capital, SV Angel and angels including Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi
🇧🇷 Quaddro, a Brazilian domestic services platform, raised a $3.2mn seed round led by Valor Capital with participation from Graão and NXTP Ventures
🇨🇴 Home Capital, a Colombian digital housing platform, raised a $3mn round from Bancolombia
🇧🇷 Omens, a Brazilian male healthtech platform, raised a $1.9mn round from Vox Capital with participation from Green Rock, Aimorés Investiments, Incubate Fund and angels
🇧🇷 Fluid API, a Brazilian systems integration platform, raised a $630k round led by DOMO Invest with participation from URCA Angels
🇧🇷 Ahoy APP, a Brazilian domestic services platform, raised a $300k seed round
Series A
🇦🇷 Koibanx, an Argentinian cryptocurrency tokenisation platform, raised a $22mn Series A led by blockchain protocol Algorand with participation from Borderless Capital, Kalonia Venture Partners, G2 and Innogen Capital
🇦🇷 Pomelo*, an Argentinian embedded finance platform, raised a $15mn Series A extension with participation from existing investors monashees, Index, Insight, Alter Global, Box Group, Clocktower, Latitud, SciFi, and Zinal
Later stage
🇧🇷 Odata, a Brazilian data center services provider, raised a $35mn round from IFC
*Not to be confused with the San Francisco-based fintech also called Pomelo, which also raised a big round last week