Musings from Mexico City #2
Kate’s monthly newsletter on all things tech, community, culture in Mexico City & Latam tech
Welcome to the second edition of Musings from Mexico City! Last month we had a ton of friends in town including Sheel Mohnot from Better Tomorrow Ventures, 300+ Kauffman Fellows, and LatAm Family Offices here for the LatAm Familly Office Investment Summit.
Thank you to everyone that joined my community event on March 16th at Yayem. We had over 410 RSVPs and loved meeting more amazing founders, investors, and builders in Mexico City.
LatAm Stats
LatAm is approaching China’s GDP per Capita and 1.75x India’s Total GDP per capita
LatAm crossed $15.3B in VC funding in 2021. Surpassing $3.6B in investment in Q4 2021 alone, 2021 recorded more than 3.2x the highest record in history (Source)
Big News
1200 VC led by Adriana Tortajada announces the launch of their $150M direct and fund-of-funds for U.S., Mexico, and Latin America (More here)
Latitud raised a $11.5M seed round from a16z & NFX to build out the operating system for every venture-backed LatAm startup – think Stripe Atlas + Mercury + Carta (More here)
Congratulations to the 30 Women named Top 30 Women in Finance in Mexico in 2022, including Anna Raptis of Amplifica Capital (More here)
Mexico-Born Jeeves raises a $180M Series C led by Tencent, becoming a $2.1B Unicorn (More here)
Community Wins to Celebrate
Congratulations to Galileo LatAm for their 1 year anniversary! Epic party last week @ Sky Lobby of Torre Reforma.
Scape is an at-home service for wellness offerings like massage and facials in 20+ Mexican cities. Congratulations to Founder & CEO, Helle Jeppsson for recent expansion to Puerto Vallerta & Leon! (More here)
Aplazo announced that it has partnered with Mastercard to launch Latin America's first-of-its-kind virtual card solution (More here)
March Events
4/12: Alter Global x ALLVP Happy Hour. RSVP here
4/21: 500 Startups LatAm Batch 15 Demo Day. RSVP here
Startup Opportunities
Startup Academy for Women Founders by Google, the Deadline is April 8th. Apply here
Apply for 2022 Mass Challenge Acceleration Program for Startups in Latin America. Deadline is April 13, 2022, at 12:00 p.m. CST (Apple here)
Apply here to become 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
Startups Hiring
Pacto, a pre-seed Mexico City-based SMB fintech and payments company is hiring for the following roles: UX/UI Designer, Marketing Manager, Proudct Manager, and Engineering Manager. Interested candidates check out the job board here
Bedu, the edtech platform, is hiring for a Chief Growth Office. Send me a message if you’re an interested candidate at hello@withkhora.com
NXTP Ventures is hiring an Associate in Mexico City. More details here
What I’m Reading
Miranda’s Mexico Fintech Report - January 2022 (Read here)
LAVCA’s 2021 Review of Tech Investments in Latam (Read here)
Why the Mexican Fintech Industry is Booming (Read here)
What I’m Listening to…
Fintech Leaders Podcast by Miguel Armaza featuring Paulo Passoni, SoftBank Latin America Managing Partner, the largest VC in LatAm that’s invested almost $8B in 80+ companies (Listen here)
Community x Capital by Michael Sidgmore & Alexis Ohanian. Episode: The Diamond Hands Mindset, but how do you find the Diamond? (Listen here)
Investing in the future of LatAm Tech w/ Angela Strange of a16z (Listen here)
Dog of the Month: Pecas *spotted at Tortas al Fuego*
Gratitude
Lastly, but most importantly, thank you to the following friends, mentors, community members for your continued advice, support, and expertise: Mariana Jiminez, Zac Thomas, Ryan Croft, Kelly Kiewel, Delma Betancourt, Christopher Schroeder, Ken Toyoda, Michael Sidgmore, Lindsay Elkin, Magdalena Jensen, Frances Schwiep, Abel Bezares, Eduardo Oritz, Dany Gonzalez, Cristian Raygoza, Ian Medford, Carlos Torres de la Cuba, Helle Jeppsson, Oscar Velazquez, Solene Furlanis, Daniel Cano, Emily Iwankovitsch, and Ignacio Estanga.
Saludos,
Kate Kiewel
Find me on Twitter for daily sound bites @katekiewel
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