Musings from Mexico City #12
Welcome to the twelfth edition of Musings from Mexico City. A personal newsletter on tech, community, and happenings in Mexico City & Latin America!
This week, I hosted 12 VCs at Sobremesa for an evening to discuss how we can help support the ecosystem this year given the macro shift in the market. We all remain optimistic and think it’s a great time to build in Latam! Thank you to Alex Santana & AWS for sponsoring and to the following funds that participated: Kaszek, Monashees, 500 Startups Latam, Puente Ventures, DILA Capital, DALUS Capital, Angel Ventures, IFC, IDB, and Accel-KKR. I am using my learnings to help shape Khora’s programming for the year, stay tuned!
This month’s newsletter is sponsored by Siclo, my favorite spin studio in Mexico (soon to be launching in Miami!). The first 50 Musings from Mexico City subscribers to email flavia@siclo.com can claim a complimentary class! Put Siclo x Khora in the subject line.
📈 Big News
Clara, a Mexico-based expense management platform, secures a $60M equity round from GGV Capital (more here)
Senzai, leverages AI optimization to guide Latam companies to their target customers, secures a $2M pre-seed round from ALLVP (more here)
Pacto raises a $4M Seed Round led by DILA Capital (more here)
🔼 Promotions & Movement @ Latam VC Funds
Jimena Pardo is promoted to Co-Managing Partner at ALLVP and Antonia Rojas departs ALLVP (more here)
Juan Pablo Telleria Ogando joins IDB Lab after 2+ years at Angel Ventures
Patrick Menendez joins FEMSA Ventures as an Investment Director after 5 years at Cometa
Natalia Gonzalez Vela departs Upload Ventures, find her writing on Substack at La Neta del VC
Alejandra Martinez joins Foundation Capital as a Partner
Fran Garcia joins Bridge Partners and Matias Lopez-Therese departs Bridge Partners
Stella (Jeehyon) Yoh joins IFC after ~4 years at IDB Lab
Kaszek earmarks nearly $1B in new funds for Latin American startups (more here)
Angel Ventures expands to Austin and incorporates new Partners to AV Latin US Fund III (more here)
📅 Upcoming Events…
5/17: This Week in Fintech Bogota Happy Hour (RSVP here)
5/20: Ice Bath Mental Workshop in Mexico City (RSVP here)
5/24: Beyond Imagination: Generative AI And Redefining Your Business And Work (RSVP here)
6/1: MongoDB.local Mexico City (RSVP here)
9/26-27: FINNOSUMMIT in Mexico City (RSVP here)
📚 What I’m Reading…
2023 Latam Digital Report | Startup Study by McKinsey (more here)
Global Fintech 2023: Reimagining the Future of Finance by BCG & QED (more here)
Impressions of a Two-Week Immersion in the Colombian Tech Scene by Abel Bezaras (more here)
Venture Capital & Growth Equity Ecosystems in Latin America 2022 (more here)
2023 Fintech Trend Report by Fiat Ventures (more here)
🎙️ What I’m Listening to…
Fintech Leaders Podcast: Nilan Peiris, Chief Product Officer at Wise (listen here)
The Tim Ferris Show: Roelof Botha, Investing with the best (listen here)
20Product: Jag Duggal, CPO @ Nubank (listen here)
👩💻 VC Firms & Startups Hiring
Senior Investment Analyst @ DILA Capital (apply here)
🧘🏻♀️ Wellness Favorites
How you could think about neurodiversity (more here)
The Blueprint Protocol (more here)
Life Lessons from 1,000 Years by Sahil Bloom (more here)
🌟 Khora Community Perks
Siclo: 1 free class for Khora community members by emailing flavia@siclo.com (limited to first 50). English classes are now available at Síclo Roma, Parian, and Masaryk locations
AWS: Khora community members receive AWS credits, reply to this email for access
Perfekto: receive 20% off your first box of imperfect food, home-delivered. Help reduce food loss while saving time and money by using code: KHORA20
Scape: use code KHORA25 for 25% off for at-home massages, facials, and beauty products
Noba: by signing up to Noba through this partnership, you will receive your first three months of service for free. More info here
🐶 Dog of the Month: Matea
Congratulations to pup, Matea, for winning Dog of the Month! You are the cutest little doggo! Puppers of Renata Raya of Revie
💜 Gratitude
Thank you to the many friends, peers, and mentors that have supported me in my Latam journey. A special shout-out to Rodolfo Gonzalez, Paulo Passoni, Marcelo Claure, Shu Nyatta, Stefania Greco, Natalia Gonzalez Vela, Miguel Burger-Calderon, Miguel Armanza, Tariq Musa, Lindsay Elkin, Nik Milanović, Ryan Croft, Jake Woodson, Michael Morgenstern, Chaitenya Razdan, Helle Jeppsson, Alex Santana, Kenny Hanson, Kelly Kiewel, Delma Betancourt, Miguel Barcena Garza, Magdalena Jensen, Meira Bennett, Daniel Bronsoiler, Christine Chang, Nik Chase Hansel, Raquel Ramirez, Abel Bezares, Johnny Hwin, Luisa Sucre, Jonathan Lewy, Andrew Endicott, Shawn Hill, and Evan Cohen.
Abrazos,
Kate Kiewel
So good to see you back, Kate, with another great roundup of tech (and dog) news out of CDMX!