Here are the highlights on Brazil’s tech and business scene in July:
July 31
Brazilian pharmaceutical giant Eurofarma has launched a venture arm called Axon Ventures to invest in early-stage healthcare companies. The fund will allocate up to US$12 million in healthcare projects.
July 30
Shopper, a platform that helps grocery shopping, received a R$ 10 million investment in its latest round. Led by the José Galló fund, the investment was joined by other major retail names such as Juscelino Martins (Martins Group), Canary VC and Ariel Lambrecht, founder of 99 and Yellow.
July 30
“Multiple world-class companies will emerge from Brazil. It’s time.” Shu Nyatta, SofBank’s Managing Partner, in an interview with BayBrazil CEO Margarise Correa. Shu talked about what is driving the record investment growth in Latin America, the factors that differentiate Brazil from other emerging countries and one trend that is impacting the largest cities around the globe.
July 30
Banco Inter sold additional equity in a US$330 million follow-on. Although the information isn’t public, according to people familiar with the transaction, SoftBank purchased almost all of it. Banco Inter’s units jumped as much as 21%, indicating SoftBank’s anchoring of Banco Inter’s offering was welcomed by markets.
July 26
Brazilian financial startup Nubank raised US$400 million in a new financing round led by U.S. investment firm TCV – Investor in Airbnb, Netflix, Spotify & others. Existing investors Tencent Holdings Ltd, DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Dragoneer, Ribbit Capital and Thrive Capital also participated in the seventh funding round.
July 23
Singapore fund GIC and General Atlantic recently made undisclosed investments in Hotmart, a Brazilian online platform for digital courses and products. Although the value of this investment round is still unknown, the two funds reportedly acquired 30 percent of the company.
July 18
Afya, the Brazilian medical education group raised US$ 300 million at the Nasdaq stock exchange. Shares surpassed 13 times the amount of shares offered.Investors are mainly from education, health and technology.
July 18
Brazilian plant-based meat producer Fazenda Futuro received its first round of investments. The US$8.5 million investment was led by venture capital firm Monashees, with participation of the investment firm Go4it Capital.
July 17
MLabs, a startup that offers social media management, has just received R$ 4 million investment from Domo Invest in its first round of investment. The investment will be used for expanding the portfolio of clients in Brazil and also scaling the operation abroad.
July 11
Pipefy, the Lean Management platform, received US$45 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors OpenView and Trinity Ventures.
July 10
Creditas, a provider of secured loans, raking in US$231 million in new financing from the SoftBank Vision Fund and SoftBank Group. Previous investors Vostok Emerging Finance, Santander InnoVentures and Amadeus Capital also participated in the round.
July 1
PayGo, the payment company of C6 bank, is reinforcing operations in the Brazilian payments market by acquiring Setis, a company that offers intelligent software for acquirers’ equipment.
