Welcome to our investment rounds of the week. Investors continue betting on early stage promising startups in Latin America and in the last seven days they have invested in industries that are gaining traction: foodtech and insurtech.
According to data from Transactional Track Record (TTR), 55 of the funding transactions made in 2021 were dedicated to technology, 46 to the financial and insurance sector, 24 internet and 14 retail. Perhaps 2022 will be the year in which foodtech companies such as Kitchenita will flourish.
Kitchenita
Buenos Aires-based foodtech Kitchenita raised its second round of investment, a pre Series of $3 million. With that, it seeks to land in Mexico City and Lima. Investors such as FJ Labs (investor of Rappi, Uber or Alibaba), Unpopular VC (an American firm), Newtopia (invested by Marcos Galperín, founder of MercadoLibre), MAGNA Partners and Flambeau Ventures participated in the round.
Meddi
Mexican insurtech Meddi closed a US$500.000 pre-seed investment round with the participation of Paul Walborsky, Seth Potter, and Antonio Rallo (co-founder of KIO Networks and the investment fund ID345). They are three investors who have promoted high-impact startups in Silicon Valley, such as Openpay and Yaxi, both of which got their “exit.”
Pablo Aguirre, co-founder of Meddi, said that this funding will be used to launch a major medical insurance policy that is being put together with one of Mexico’s largest insurance companies. This health care policy will be part of the company’s current portfolio of medical services. Once in the market, the company hopes to expand its presence in the country and broaden their user base, which currently has more than 50,000 patients.
Investment programs
Parallel18, a program of the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust (PRSTRT), which is celebrating its 10th generation (Gen. X), was also announced this week. The program is awarding $150,000 to 10 startups that will participate in this special edition of P18, its international acceleration program.
P18 will select these startups through a process of internal and external evaluation committees and personal interviews with the founders. The official startup cohort will be announced in mid-May and the intensive 20-week program will begin at the end of June.
