VC4A, the leading startup support platform in emerging markets, is proud to announce the 7 companies selected for the first edition of the VC4A Venture Showcase: Seed + Series A in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The 2022 portfolio companies are amongst the most investable high-impact Seed and Series A opportunities in Spanish and English speaking regions across Latin America and the Caribbean. They have been carefully selected through a rigorous adjudication process by an independent jury of VC investors and partner organizations.
The 7 selected ventures show strong innovativeness and scalability, growing revenue supported by a solid growth strategy, and a significant social and environmental impact; As importantly, they are led by talented founding teams, 50% of them are led by women. They operate in the health-tech, e-commerce, fintech, big data, business services, and agri-tech sectors.
The founders will showcase their businesses to investors in a plenary session during the VCILAT Venture Capital and Investment Summit Latam on 17-18 August 2022 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The event is co-organized by VC4A and its partner CAINCO (Chamber of Industry & Commerce) with the support of BID Lab. The rounds range between $500K and $10M. Interested investors are invited to meet with them in small settings as well as private DealRooms for more confidential conversations.
The 2022 edition welcomed over 27 VC funds from Latin America and the United States such as Accion, ALLVP, Dalus Capital, Mercy Corps Ventures, Alive Ventures, New Ventures, World Impact Foundation, Alphamundi, Cometa, Yunus Social Business, EcoEnterprises Fund, Impaqto Capital, The Yield Lab, Seaya Cathay Latam, Co_Capital, Startups Ventures, Fen Ventures, Arrayan Capital, Magma Partners, Kukua Ventures, Salkantay Ventures, among many others.
LAVCA report reveals that “Latam VC investment is running above average historical levels. VC capital deployed in Latam in 1H 2022 (USD5.1b) exceeded full-year totals of 2019 (USD4.9b) and 2020 (USD4.2b)”
Julio Silva, Head of Innovation and Sustainability at CAINCO, stated: “It is a pleasure for us to join forces to host the first edition of Venture Showcase in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. This collaboration will not only enhance the Bolivian ecosystem but will also allow a key step in building networks.”
The 2022 VC4A Venture Showcase Latam – Seed portfolio:
A women-led, women-focused high-impact talent platform solving unemployment for at-risk populations in Latin America. Programa Valentina is transforming the HR industry by helping switch recruiter’s hiring decision focus from experience to potential, using data and analytics from certified human skills and basic tech skills.
HaitiPay is a fintech operating a mobile money network in Haiti, providing local and cross border e-payments, with its API-enabled digital banking platform.
Coco Pago is transforming the way unbanked people in LatAm receive money. We built a digital wallet that helps Latin American migrants send dollars to their families back home instantly via mobile top-up using blockchain.
The 2022 VC4A Venture Showcase Latam – Series A portfolio:
Fracción is a digital pharmacy that seeks to improve access to medicines for thousands of people based on an innovative, collaborative model with public-private partnerships.
Prestamype is the largest lending Fintech for micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Peru. Its main product is a mortgage-backed working capital loan.
Verqor is a platform to revolutionize the agricultural sector with finance and technology and provides armers access to cashless credits that can be used for inputs or technology within the app.
Mamotest is a patient-data driven end to end solution defeating breast cancer. It goes from demand traction to high quality diagnosis and patient journey follow up.
Venture residency program
Over the next two months, the selected companies will participate in a virtual investor readiness program with VC and angel investors on 1-1 mentoring sessions.
A number of technical workshops will be delivered by experts from AWS, GitHub, Equidam and Seed by EY among other partners.
Ben White, Founder and CEO of VC4A, adds: “The first edition of the Venture Showcase in Latam unlocks co-investment opportunities amongst VC funds, impact investors, and corporate venture divisions. We have worked together with leading investors from across the region to identify the most promising companies from 18 countries that are creating innovative and scalable solutions across the continent. VC4A facilitates connections between investors and entrepreneurs as we work together to create major success stories.”
About the VC4A Venture Showcase
VC4A’s mission is to connect entrepreneurs with the knowledge, support programs, mentors, and investors they need to thrive and grow their businesses.
The VC4A Venture Showcase is an award-winning format to identify and spotlight top investment opportunities from emerging markets to a global audience. The program aims to catalyze the Seed and Series A opportunities in emerging markets through fostering investor collaboration and creating co-investment opportunities. What makes the program unique is unprecedented participation from the investor community in every step of the process. It successfully bridges the funding gaps and thus improves the pathway for companies who want to scale in the region. VC4A has been running the format since 2017 in Africa, with 90+ alumni companies having jointly raised over US$500M in funding.
In Latin America, the showcase has the support of the global alliance PES Latam and is empowered by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Julia Santander, managing director at EcoEnterprises Fund and a purpose-driven investor in emerging markets explicates “The VC4A Venture Showcase is an exciting opportunity to meet a broad range of upcoming, innovative startups from different countries in Latin America targeting the important social and environmental issues of our times; a great platform for investors to identify (co-)investment opportunities from very early stage to tested early growth stage enterprises.”
Federico Gómez Romero, principal at Seaya Cathay Latam and an active investor in the region explains: “The VC4A Venture Showcase is a great way for investors to meet some of the most innovative impact startups in Latam, and gives the entrepreneurs the opportunity to get feedback from some of the top VCs in the region. Especially for early-stage companies, it’s a unique opportunity to grow their network.”
Special thanks
VC4A would like to extend the utmost gratitude to its strategic partners that significantly enhance the benefits provided to the selected participants.
First, we’d like to thank PES Latam financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation as main program partners and chief financiers of the 2022 VC4A Venture Showcase Latam.
This year, cloud platform Amazon Web Services (AWS Activate) joins the Venture Showcase in Latam as a technical partner offering up to US$25,000 in credits and technical support through its AWS Activate program for each company.
Finally, special thanks to VC4A’s outreach partners such as Cube Ventures, MassChallenge Mexico, Kunan, iLab, Insert, Socialab, FUNDES, ASEM, PECAP, Fundación Avina, Viva Idea, Mastercard Start Path, SUM, Brixton Ventures Lab, Lazo, UTEC Ventures, Ashoka, New Ventures, Bridge for Billions, Startup Chile, and many others that supported the call for founders and reached out to applicants from 18 countries in the region.
Interested investors and entrepreneurs are invited to participate in the Venture Capital and Investment Summit VCILAT DealRooms and plenary sessions. Please contact Frédérique Bisserier frederique[at]vc4a[dot]com or Iris Parra iris[at]vc4a[dot]com for more information.