It’s been a year since we founded LatAm List to share Latin American tech news with the English-speaking public, and it’s been a great one! 2018 has been a year to test our model and watch it become a resource for many English-speaking professionals in Latin America and worldwide.
LatAm List Updates
Since we started, we have published over 320 articles that have reached more than 24,000 visitors and have been shared hundreds of times on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Some of our articles have even made their way into top industry newsletters and were linked in bylines in TechCrunch, Crunchbase News, and The Next Web.
Scanning over numbers for 2018, our top readership was in Chile and the US, together making up almost half of total viewers last year. After that, 14% of our readers are in Mexico, 7% in Peru, and 5% in Brazil. However, we also had readers in over 108 countries (!), from Russia to Indonesia, and Belgium to South Africa.
Latin American Tech: 2018 in Review
2018 was a standout year for Latin American tech, which made it a great time to be a news source! LAVCA hasn’t yet released their official 2018 data, but early numbers show that last year was by far Latin America’s best year in tech and investment. In just the month of October, public tech deals outstripped tech funding in Latin America for all of 2016. After iFood’s historic US$500M investment, tech deals in the last three months of 2018 should have far exceeded Latin America’s record breaking US$1B in tech investment in 2017.
To celebrate an outstanding year in Latin American tech, here are our top articles and highlights for each month in 2018:
January – Didi Acquires 99 for $1B to Expand Into Latin America
China’s Uber rival, Didi Chuxing, acquired Brazil’s rideshare app 99, creating Latin America’s first unicorn of the year.
Other January Highlights:
- In January, PagSeguro, a Brazilian POS startup, had a US$2.7B IPO
- Chile saw its first example of acqui-hiring
- Glovo made its Latin American debut
February – Wayra Chile Invests $500K into Three Chilean Startups
Telefonica’s investment arm in Chile invested in Postedin, Cloner, and Zapping TV.
Other February Highlights:
- Magma Partners raised a US$15M second fund and launched the Sino-Latin American Accelerator
- Mobike launched in Santiago, their first city in Latin America
- Hogaru got follow-on investment from Y Combinator and others in Silicon Valley
March – Chilean cryptocurrency industry asks banks to clarify regulations
Chilean banks closed accounts for two major cryptocurrency exchanges, Buda.com and CryptoMKT, without warning, although they were later reopened.
Other March Highlights:
- Nubank became Brazil’s third unicorn of the year
- Mexican.VC exited Yogome (more news on that later!) and provided 8x returns for investors
April – Tickeri expands Bandsintown partnership to allow in-app purchases
The largest US-based ticket seller for the Latino market, Tickeri, partnered with event discovery platform, Bandsintown.
Other April Highlights:
- AliPay made its way into the Mexican market
- Movile invested US$18.3M into payments app, Zoop
- Creditas raised a US$55M Series C to improve lending in Brazil
May – NXTP Labs leads investment in Argentine fintech, Pay per TIC
Pay per TIC, a fundraising startup in Argentina, received an undisclosed investment from NXTP Labs after participating in the accelerator.
Other May Highlights:
- Morgan Stanley invested in a Latin American fintech startup for the first time
- YellowPepper raised US$12.5M from Visa
June – Report: Walmart to Acquire Cornershop for $200M
Hint: This acquisition did happen and it was even bigger than predicted!
Other June Highlights:
- Argentine startup, Auth0, raised US$55M from international investors
- Colombian e-learning startup, UBits, was accepted into Y Combinator
July – Student Loan Hero Acquired by Lending Tree for $60M
Fully bootstrapped Start-Up Chile graduate, Student Loan Hero, which helps students manage their loans, was acquired by Lending Tree.
Other July Highlights:
- BrainHi became the first Puerto Rican startup in Y Combinator
- Chilean cryptocurrency exchange, CryptoMKT, raised US$600K from Consensys and Magma Partners
- Liftit raised US$12M in their Series A
August – Rappi raises US$200M investment
Colombia’s delivery app, Rappi, raised a US$200M round led by DST Global that turned it into Colombia’s first tech unicorn.
Other August Highlights:
- Chilean retailer Falabella acquired Mexican e-commerce startup, Linio, for US$138M
- Movile raised US$124M to expand its key programs
- Electronics reseller, Trocafone, raised a round from Pedralbes Partners and Chinese e-reseller, Aihouishou
September – Insurtech startup ComparaOnline acquires Colombian rival, ComparaMejor
Chilean insurtech startup, ComparaOnline, acquired a Colombian competitor to streamline expansion into the new market.
While ComparaOnline was our most-read article of the month, September was a huge month for startups in LatAm. We also launched our monthly roundups in September, which you can read here.
Other September Highlights:
- Walmart made good on rumors about acquiring Chilean/Mexican delivery app, Cornershop for US$225M
- Omnibnk (previously Portal Finance) closed a US$200M partnership with investment bank, BTG Pactual
- Mexican e-scooter startup, Grin, raised Latin America’s biggest seed round at US$20M
- Brazil’s e-scooter startup, Yellow, raised Latin America’s biggest Series A at US$63M
- Brazil’s Uber for Trucks, CargoX, raised US$60M
October – Latin American startups have raised US$853M+ in the past 6 weeks. That’s more than all of 2016.
September and October were banner months for tech in Latin America. We were there to celebrate the region’s inflection point.
October Highlights:
- Uala raised a US$34M Series B led by Goldman Sachs
- Mexican edtech startup, Yogome, created ripples when it closed due to fraud
- Nubank raised US$180M from Tencent and hit a US$4B valuation
- U-Planner raised Chile’s highest venture round of the year at US$5M
- Jooycar raised Chile’s second-highest venture round of the year
- Grin Scooters raised a US$45M Series A just weeks after its Seed round
- Brazil’s StoneCo raised US$1.5B in its IPO – Ant Financial and Berkshire Hathaway bought shares
November – Puerto Rican startup Brands Of raises US$1M from foreign and local investors
The Puerto Rican e-commerce business raised US$1M to start expanding into the US Hispanic market, showcasing local entrepreneurs to help them sell through the platform.
November Highlights:
- Visa made its first investment in Brazilian fintech
- Monashees, Latin America’s largest VC firm, raised a US$150M fund
- Mexico’s ALLVP (Cornershop investors!) closed a US$100M fund to invest in Latin American startups
- iFood raised US$500M – potentially Latin America’s biggest round ever
December – Magma Partners signs MOU with China Youth Center for International Exchange
During a visit from the Chinese delegation, Chilean VC firm Magma Partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding to further support their Sino-Latin American accelerator program.
December Highlights:
- LentesPlus raised a US$5M Series A
- Amazon hinted at an aggressive Latin American expansion plan
- Chilean IoT startup Citysense raised US$1.7M to expand to Mexico
Looking back at 2018, it is easy to see how Latin American tech took off in the past three months. And it hasn’t slowed down. Here’s to an even better 2019 full of record-breaking investments, new success stories, and even more exits.
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