LatAm ICT investment, financing watch

Argentine fintech Celeri secured US$2.6mn in a seed round to ramp up its business of solutions aimed at automating and simplifying compliance processes in the financial industry.

The funding was raided from Y Combinator, Funders Club VC, Commerce VC, Pioneer Fund and 22 VC, among others.

Founded about a year ago, the company claims to have over 50 clients in Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Mexico. The startup is now expanding into Brazil, and is targeting 100 clients by the end of 2023.

According to the latest report by the Argentine association of private, entrepreneurial and seed capital (Arcap) in partnership with Microsoft, 42 seed capital transactions were registered year-to-date in the country, for a total of US$164mn.

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Mexican healthtech Welbe raised 100mn pesos (US$5mn) in a seed round led by Volpe Capital and Nazca, VC funds founded in Brazil and Mexico, respectively.

The round also featured the participation of Silicon Valley fund SVLC. Also taking part was Kortex, a fund backed by Bradesco Seguros and Fleury, and GreenRock, both of which are specialized in the health market.

This is the first investment by Volpe, Kortex and GreenRock in the Mexican market.

Welbe operates in Mexico and has commercial teams in Mexico City, Puebla, Querétaro, Monterrey and Guadalajara, as well as São Paulo in Brazil.

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Siemens Brasil is looking for startups with AI and IoT solutions for the Startups Connected program, an initiative carried out by the Brazil-Germany São Paulo chamber of commerce and industry (AHK São Paulo).

In the program, companies and startups work on an innovation project based on a business challenge.

The solution sought by Siemens comprises algorithms developed in Python language and on the MindSphere platform. Specifications and tech validation will be carried out jointly between the startup and Siemens, according to the company.

"Siemens' Industrial Edge portfolio is ready to host applications to accelerate the deployment of AI models on the factory floor," Siemens said in a statement. "The company is looking for algorithms to interpret the data being digitally generated in edge computing with artificial intelligence models for variables predictions and process monitoring."

At the end of the program, a minimum viable product (MPV) of the solution is expected to be tested at Siemens' manufacturing platform.

Submissions run until December 31. Projects will be evaluated between January 4 and 31 and winning startups will be announced on February 1, with the acceleration taking place between February 2 and May 28. 

Applications for the program can be sent here.

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Latin American data analytics and AI company Neoway and Brazil’s B3 stock exchange selected nine startups for the first class of the Smart acceleration program.

The selected companies were DealerSites and Autoforce, from the automotive market; Minds Digital, Data Rudder and VAAS, focused on fraud solutions; Velotax and Gofind, in sales and marketing; and Perinity and Kronoos, which work with risk and compliance.

The program will feature mentoring from Neoway, B3 and partner companies. Startups will also be connected to around 700 enterprises, have access to Google Cloud credits, and be able to use offices in São Paulo or Florianópolis, among other benefits.

Smart is an equity free startup acceleration initiative. More information about the program can be found here.

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Brazil saw 370 M&As in Q3, down from 557 in the same quarter of 2021 and from 461 in Q2, according to a study by KPMG.

The drop was mainly due to the reduction in the number of transactions by technology and internet companies, said the consultancy, which registered 44 and 121 transactions in Q3, down from 97 and 168, respectively in Q2.

Of the 370 operations in the quarter, 241 were between Brazilian-owned companies.