Erick Coser and Otávio Costa Miranda moved back to Brazil in 2019 to solve a large, yet unsolved problem in Latin America. Both had backgrounds in building companies to solve urban problems and identified a problem with safety and how information was being shared. “Brazilian citizens are already some of the world’s top acquirers of […]

Leal, a Bogota, Colombia-based retail tech company providing customer engagement in Latin America, raised $5 million in a round that CEO Camilo Martinez called a “pre-Series B.” LEAP Global Partners and Rakuten Capital co-led the round and were joined by Morro Ventures and Salkantay Ventures. The round comes about two years after the company raised […]

Nearly two years after securing $20 million in Series A capital, B2B financial solutions startup Simetrik is back with additional investment to the tune of $55 million in Series B funding. The Colombia-based company is developing financial automation technology around record centralization, reconciliations, controls, reporting and accounting. Where it is differentiating itself is through its […]

Brazilian startup Salvy, a mobile carrier for businesses, was the only company based in Latin America in Y Combinator’s latest batch, the accelerator confirmed to TechCrunch. That’s a significant drop compared to cohorts that went through the accelerator during COVID when it was remote, but also more recent classes: There were 33 Latin American companies […]

Remittances from workers in the U.S. to their families and friends in Latin America amounted to $155 billion in 2023. With such a huge opportunity, banks, money transfer companies, retailers and fintechs are all trying to make transfers more convenient on both sides of the transaction. Fast-growing startup Félix Pago is one of these players, […]

Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is packed with deals, antitrust musings, AI and more.  To kick things off, Kirsten walked us through Elon Musk’s recent declaration of his intent to move both SpaceX and X’s headquarters out of California to Texas. Whether or […]

Uber-backed Moove, an Africa-born mobility fintech that offers vehicle financing to ride-hailing and delivery app drivers across six continents, has acquired Kovi, a Brazilian urban mobility provider. The value of the deal is not being disclosed, but Moove confirmed it was an all-share transaction, and Kovi is now wholly owned by Moove. Moove co-founder and […]

Five years ago, SpaceX launched Starlink, which has since grown into its biggest revenue driver, expanding to more than 100 countries. But as Starlink scaled, it faced a major hurdle: accepting payments in developing markets, where traditional banking infrastructure is unreliable, slow, and prone to blocking transactions. Many local banks across Africa, Latin America, and […]

Mexico City-based Mendel has raised $35 million in a Series B round of funding, it tells TechCrunch exclusively. Corporate spend management platform Mendel last raised in December 2021 — a $15 million Series A round and $20 million in debt — after participating in Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 cohort. With this latest capital infusion, the […]

A new venture firm aims to prove that the most successful startup ideas don’t have to be born or scaled in Silicon Valley. Fluent Ventures, a global early-stage fund, is backing founders replicating proven business models from Western markets in fintech, digital health, and commerce across emerging markets. The more cynical might describe this as […]