LatAm ICT investment, tender watch

Brazilian public financing company Finep launched a broad call aimed at innovation in the defense sector.

Around 120mn reais (US$25mn) will be allocated in non-refundable subsidies from the national scientific and tech development fund (FNDCT) for defense technology projects. The call is focused on national companies.

Among the technologies sought are artificial intelligence and quantum technologies for cyber defense, and software-defined and cognitive communications equipment.

Submissions will be open from June 7 to July 18. More information about the project can be found on the Finep website here, in Portuguese.

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Looking to expand in the region, Venezuelan e-commerce and delivery startup Yummy raised US$47mn in a series A round led by Anthos Capital, with participation of Jam Fund, Soma Capital, Wind Ventures (the investment arm of Chilean energy group Copec), Ethos Capital, and YC Continuity.

The round was reportedly the largest ever VC investment raised by a Venezuelan startup and built on an US$18mn October seed round.

Founded in 2020, the Caracas-headquartered company operates in six Latin American cities, offering different services via a single platform in the “superApp” format.

The company has positions opened for different roles and in different markets, seeking country managers in Argentina, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

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Jam Fund was also one of the backers of Argentine logtech clicOH, a platform for the management of e-commerce shipping to retailers, which raised US$25mn in a series A funding round.

The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from current investors Flexport, FundersClub and Vast VC.

With the new funding, the company raised a total of US$33mn since its launch in 2018. clicOH operates in Mexico, Chile and Uruguay, in addition to Argentina.

The startup aims to use the resources to accelerate its regional expansion, targeting Colombia as the next market, and product and solutions development.

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MSW Capital, which claims to be one of the top firms specializing in corporate venture capital (CVC) in Brazil, launched a second VC fund, called MSW MultiCorp II, with initial equity of 100mn reais.

MSW MultiCorp intends to invest 2mn-15mn reais per startup, targeting companies that are at an early stage (seeking seed or series A rounds) and that have “synergy” with the operations of the fund’s initial backers.

The fund kicks off with investors BB Seguros, Moura Batteries and AgeRio and as such is targeting startups from the insurance and energy segments in a first selection call.