Musings from Mexico City #1
Kate’s monthly newsletter on all things tech, community, culture in Mexico City & Mexico tech.
Welcome to the first of many Musings from Mexico City. A personal newsletter on tech, community, and happenings in Mexico, starting with Mexico City! Mexico City is the 5th largest city in the world with over 21.5 million people. It’s also home to some of the fastest digital payment and eCommerce growth in the world + the best pozole, tlacoyos, & tacos!
Thank you to everyone that came out to the Founder & Builder happy hour last month. We had over 190 RSVPs and loved meeting more amazing founders and builders in Mexico City. Our next community mixer is on March 16th, RSVP here.
Thank you to our event sponsor Athena's Journal! For more details about sponsoring, email hello@withkhora.com
Top LatAm Stats of 2021
LatAm is the fastest growing region for VC funding with 320% YoY growth in 2021 (Source)
One of the biggest 2021 LatAm funding recipients is Mexico City-based Kavak, an online platform for buying and selling used cars that raised $485 million this year (Source)
Global hiring by tech companies in Latin America increases by 286% (Source)
In 2021, Konfio raised a $235M Series E and hit unicorn status with a $1.3B valuation (Source)
In just 8 months, Clara became a unicorn with a $70M Series B round led by Coatue (Source)
Big News
Congratulations to the 30 companies named 2022 #30PromesasForbes in Mexico. Including startups like Cargamos, Meru, and Beyond Work (full list here)
The Fintech Fund led by Nik Milanović announced their first fund with LPs like Tiger Global, Bain Capital Ventures, and Hummingbird
Better Tomorrow Ventures led by Sheel Mohnot & Jake Gibson announced their second fund of $225 million focused on U.S. & global fintech pre-seed and seed companies. In Mexico, they’ve invested in Super and Mendel
Congratulation to Mexico-based 99 Minutos that raised a $82M Series C led by Oak HC/FT with participation from Kaszek & Prosus. More here
Twenty six companies from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Panama and Peru were selected for YCombinator’s W22 batch. More here
Valoreo announces $80 million Series B Investment Led by L Catterton. More here
Community
I am building the largest mentor network in Mexico for the community. Apply here to be a mentor in the Khora community and apply here if you’re a startup founder looking for mentorship. Mentors include growth-stage founders, executives at corporates, investors, and more. For questions reach out to hello@withkhora.com
Yayem is a global experiential global members club that launched its second house in Lomas de Chapultepec (first in Portugal). On Wednesdays, they have an open house for prospective members to join for a day of programming & coworking. For more information, message lindsay@yayem.co
Amplifica Capital opened a weekly space where we have five slots for female entrepreneurs to present their pitches and receive feedback from investors. To participate, they must send an e-mail to pitchpractice@amplifica.capital
March Events
3/4: The Daoist Mexico City Conference. RSVP here
3/16: I am hosting the Founders & Builder Mixer hosted by Khora. RSVP here❗
3/26: CDMX Fintech Fiesta hosted by This Week in Fintech
3/26-3/30: Kauffman Fellow’s Offsite in CDMX
Accelerator Opportunities
Finnovista & Visa teamed up for the 2022 Visa Anywhere Program. Apply by March 18, 2022. More details here
Apply for one of the Latitud Fellowships: Find a great idea or take an existing one to MVP through the Explore Fellowship (cohort starts 3/21) OR develop your product, growth, and fundraising strategies through the Build Fellowship (cohort starts 3/28)
YCombinator is accepting applications for the Summer 2022 batch. Apply here
Startups Hiring
Sofia Salud is hiring 11+ roles in CDMX including Backend Developer, Operations Associate, and Product Manager. Full job board here
Latitud R&D team is hiring for ProductOps, Product Manager, Product Design, and Engineering Managers. Contact Patrick Kolencherry if interested (@kolencherry)
Pacto, a stealth pre-seed Mexico City-based SMB fintech and payments company. Pacto is actively growing and are hiring for the follow roles: UX/UI Designer (2x), Ruby Engineer (2x), Customer Success Manager, Product Manager, as well as multiple Business Development Reps (BDs) and Sales Development Reps (SDRs). Interested candidates are encouraged to send CVs to hola@pacto.co
Pangea is hiring for Senior Product Manager & QA Engineer in Mexico City
Swell is hiring for remote positions for Sales, BD, Engineer, and more. Full job board here
To be included on next month's job board, email hello@withkhora.com with details on your company & open roles!
What I’m Listening to…
Invest Like The Best Episode 35 with Sebastian Kanovich (CEO of dLocal) - Powering Emerging Markets Payments. Listen here
Podcast on enhancing the growth of entrepreneurship and world-changing projects ft. Gina Gotthilf, co-founder of Latitud. Listen here
Podcast Fundadores featuring Helena Polyblank, Co-Founder of Mendel
Dog of the Month
Until next month.
Abrazos,
Kate Kiewel
Find me on Twitter for daily sound bites @katekiewel