As technology ecosystems throughout the region face new challenges presented by the COVID-19 outbreak, I thought to continue the prior series, taking a look at some of the biggest technology and startup news from the region each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite rising economic uncertainty stemming from the novel coronavirus, April still saw some startups in Latin America raise funding, while others focused their efforts on solving COVID-19-related issues. And one of the region\u2019s oldest government-backed tech accelerators turned 10 years old! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s an entrepreneur\u2019s guide on what happened in Latin American tech in April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The big players<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
March and April saw most countries in Latin America implement strict shelter in place rules on their populations to help stem the spread of the coronavirus. In late March, UNESCO calculated<\/a> that more than 95% of Latin American children enrolled in school were no longer able to attend because of shutdowns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With social distancing measures in mind, Facebook announced<\/a> that it would expand the release of its Messenger Kids app to 70 countries, including many in Latin America, as a means to help \u201ckids connect with friends and family.\u201d In 2018, when the company first expanded the app outside of the United States, Peru was one of the first countries<\/a>, along with Canada, to gain access. Safety of the app still remains a concern though, as last year, TNW reported<\/a> that Facebook had sent out alerts to parents about a design flaw in the app which allowed children to join group chats with unapproved contacts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n American commercial real estate firm WeWork and Japanese holding company Softbank ran into trouble with regulators in Mexico this month, resulting in a USD $138,000 fine, according to a press release<\/a> from COFECE, the country\u2019s antitrust watchdog. The two companies are accused by the regulator of declaring a stock purchase by Softbank of WeWork shares more than six months after the deal had already been made. The announcement comes amid a fiery legal spat between the investor and the portfolio company, with WeWork\u2019s board suing<\/a> Softbank for its withdrawal of an offer to buy $3 billion in shares of company stock. The co-working space provider has locations in Mexican cities including Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Colombia is the latest backdrop for a showdown in the bustling South American delivery app marketplace. Bloomberg reported<\/a> earlier this month that Brazilian food delivery app iFood acquired a 51% stake in the Colombian operations of Delivery Hero SE, the parent company of Domicilios.com, a direct competitor of the Andean nation\u2019s startup darling Rappi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Regulators still need to approve the merger, however, iFood\u2019s corporate vice president for Latin America operations already has high hopes for the market, telling Bloomberg\u2019s Ezra Fieser, \u201cTogether with Domicilios in this new partnership we will be able to invest exponentially more than in the past. We will grab a lot of market space in Colombia.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year, Rappi, which was accelerated at Y Combinator and previously received investment from Andreessen Horowitz, received an enormous capital injection of $1 billion from Softbank, helping further expand its operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Magma Partners, a venture capital firm headquartered in Santiago Chile, announced it was \u201cdoubling down\u201d on Mexican startups by acquiring Guadalajara-based accelerator Rampa for an undisclosed amount of cash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a blog post<\/a> on the firm\u2019s website, Magma Partners detailed how the firm has worked closely with Rampa for years, and will use this new relationship to accelerate its interests in Mexico, Latin America\u2019s second largest market. The company noted that it had already invested in 12 Mexican startups, and with the addition of Rampa\u2019s founder Mak Gutierrez, now counts 15 partners across Latin America in cities such as Guadalajara, Mexico City, Bogot\u00e1, Santiago, Buenos Aires, as well as cities in the U.S. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In other news from Mexican startups, AI startup Omdena, accelerated by Tec de Monterrey\u2019s Orion Startups<\/a>, was featured on the NASDAQ billboard; Monterrey-based One Prize, incubated at USC\u2019s prestigious incubator led by Paul Orlando, announced new milestones, while Startup Mexico announced its support<\/a> for providing free online training and better support for doctors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Entrepreneur.com en Espanol, via its Editor in Chief Martha Elena Violante De Santos, also introduced its list of entrepreneurs<\/a> under the age of 25 that are changing industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As venture capitalists around the globe tighten their belts amid the coronavirus outbreak, Latin America is no different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The region\u2019s largest startup ecosystem, Brazil, witnessed a steep decline in funds invested in its venture capital market according<\/a> to Reuters, with a drop of 85% in March compared to the same period last year. And Contxto reported<\/a> major layoffs at Brazilian companies including GetNinjas, Conta Azul, as well as the Brazilian offices of Indian hospitality startup Oyo Rooms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite setbacks, a few startups in the country did record some investment in April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sanar, an education platform for Brazil\u2019s healthcare workforce, announced<\/a> a Series B funding round led by Valor Capital and DNA Capital with follow-on funding from e.bricks Ventures and Vox Capital, who had previously invested in the company\u2019s Series A in 2018. The investment brings the total amount of funding disclosed by Sanar to $11.5 million, according<\/a> to Crunchbase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The company was founded<\/a> in 2013 to help expand educational opportunities for healthcare workers in remote areas of Brazil, far away from larger cities where most doctors and nurses are concentrated. The move is somewhat of a timely investment considering Brazil is the most-affected country in the region with over 70,000<\/a> confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of this writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Brazil\u2019s PetLove, an online marketplace for pet supplies, raised $48 million from SoftBank according<\/a> to Reuters. The company is the leading e-commerce pet store in the country, according<\/a> to PETS International, an industry analyst, and total pet supply sales in the country reached $8.7 billion in 2019. PetLove had previously received investment from KasZek Ventures, Monashees and Tarpon, reported<\/a> the Latin American Venture Capital Association (LAVCA). According<\/a> to Startup Universal, Brazil accounts for most of Latin America\u2019s VC investment, at about $1.3 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside of Brazil, Latin American vocational skills training platform Aprende Institute announced<\/a> that it raised a $1.6 million seed round of funding from Angel Ventures via its AV Pacific Alliance Fund II LP, Artisan Venture Capital, 500 Startups, Claure Group and other angel investors. The company, which is based in Coral Gables, Florida but services Latin Americans as well as the United States Hispanic market, aims to fill the gap between high-cost, high-commitment vocation institutes and free tutorials on YouTube and Google to help people make money in fields they\u2019re passionate about including gastronomy, business and entrepreneurship, wellness, trade skills, and fashion and beauty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Techstars, a global startup and corporate accelerator, re-focused the latest series of their flagship Startup Weekend event to challenge entrepreneurs to build companies to solve problems related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Over 59 countries hosted virtual \u201cUnite to Fight COVID-19<\/a>\u201d events at various dates throughout April, including 10 Latin American nations as well as the United States territory of Puerto Rico. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Colombia, organizers Marian Villa, Steven Rodriguez, Miguel Gonzalez and Flor Li\u00e9vano brought together numerous startups for a 54-hour startup creation hackathon. Judges, which included Andr\u00e9s Cajiao, co-founder of Torre; Sergio Granada, CTO of Talos Digital; Jim Glade, principal at Espacio; and Manuela Pe\u00f1a G\u00f3mez, startup coordinator at Universidad de La Sabana, crowned AportApp as the winner.\u00a0Still in development,\u00a0AportApp<\/a>\u00a0works as a reverse delivery service for donating food to vulnerable populations most affected by the COVID-19<\/a> labor shutdowns. Donors can use the app to select how many food packets they wish to donate, providers package the donated food and deliver it to families in need who\u2019ve signed up for the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company aims to help provide much-needed resources to at-risk communities including informal laborers which make up nearly 50% of Colombia\u2019s workforce<\/a>, and haven\u2019t been able to go out into the streets to sell their wares amid country-wide lockdowns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Global startup accelerator 500 Startups is pushing forward through the economic slump brought on by the outbreak, announcing<\/a> that it\u2019s accepting applications for its 12th cohort in Latin America. Selected startups will receive $60,000 and work closely with 500 Startups mentors for 16 weeks \u2014 whether this will be in-person or virtually is still undetermined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking with Forbes Mexico\u2019s Alejandro Medina, 500 Startups Partner Ren\u00e9 Lomel\u00ed said<\/a>, \u201cWith this work dynamic, the plans for 2020 continue to be carried out without changes, staying aware of the possibility of modifying the program to be remote by July.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, one of the leading accelerator programs founded in Latin America turned 10 years old in April, and released some data that highlight its wins, as well as its short-comings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Startup Chile, the Chilean government-backed accelerator led by Sebasti\u00e1n D\u00edaz Mesa that provides $40,000 equity-free funding to bring foreign entrepreneurs from as far off as Silicon Valley and Singapore to the Southern Cone, announced<\/a> that during its tenure the program has accelerated 1,960 startups from 85 countries, created 7,241 jobs in the country, and raised over 17 times the amount of capital originally invested by the government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The accelerator also noted that it needed to do more to close the funding gap between male and female founders in the country. In Chile, of the total capital startup founders raised, women founders only captured about 12% of it, despite stats that indicate the strength of female-founded companies, including that Chilean startups that have at least one woman on the founding team survive more (60.7%) than those made only by men (49.4%), according to a report<\/a> from local newspaper El Mercurio. <\/p>\n\n\n\nA merger in the delivery app space<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Amid COVID-19, a few funding announcements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAccelerators and incubators<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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