Nigerian ethical credit-recovery fintech Bfree secures $1.7M, expands to Asia, Europe, South America and across Africa

Bfree, a Nigerian credit management fintech has embarked on global expansion after raising $1.7 million in a pre-Series A round, to tap the opportunities in emerging markets, where digital lending apps have recently sprung up in droves. Funds that participated in the latest round included 4Di Capital, Octerra Capital, VestedWorld, Voltron Capital, Logos Ventures, and […]

Delivery Hero calls last orders on Foodpanda in Germany, Japan as it tightens focus on Q-commerce and logistics-as-a-service

German on-demand delivery giant Delivery Hero is pulling its food delivery service out of Germany again. At the same time it has announced it will exit the Japanese market, by divesting Foodpanda Japan, starting in Q1 next year. In a statement accompanying the pre-Christmas exit news, the company’s CEO and co-founder, Niklas Östberg, said: “Scaling […]

Tiger Global leads $25M investment into Swap, which aims to be ‘LatAm’s fintech factory’

Swap, a São Paulo-based BaaS startup, announced today it has raised $25 million in a Series A led by Tiger Global Management. The financing was “heavily oversubscribed,” according to the company, which has now raised $28 million since its October 2018 inception. Endeavor, Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, partners of DST Global, ONEVC, Global Founders Capital […]

Accel, Tiger and Stripe’s COO back Mexico City-based Higo as it raises $23M for its B2B payments platform

Just six months after raising $3.3 million in seed funding, Mexico City-based Higo announced today it has raised $23 million in a Series A round led by Accel. Tiger Global Management also participated in the financing, along with existing backers Haystack, Homebrew, Audacious, Susa Ventures and J Ventures. A number of angel investors also put […]

Mexico’s Kavak drives away with $700M in new funding, doubling its valuation to $8.7B

Kavak, a Mexico City-based startup that operates a pre-owned car marketplace in Latin America, announced today that it has raised a massive $700 million in a Series E round that more than doubles the company’s valuation to $8.7 billion. This news is notable for a few reasons. For one, it’s a staggering sum for any […]

Flat.mx raises $20M from VCs, proptech unicorn founders to fix Mexico’s ‘broken’ real estate market

Flat.mx, which wants to build a real estate “super app” for Latin America, has closed on a $20 million Series A round of funding. Anthemis and 500 Startups co-led the investment, which included participation from ALLVP and Expa. Previously, Flat.mx had raised a total $10 million in equity and $25 million in debt. Other backers […]

The pure hell of managing your JPEGs

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Natasha and Alex and Grace and Chris were joined by none other than TechCrunch’s own Mary Ann Azevedo, in her first-ever appearance on the show. She’s pretty much the best person and we’re stoked to have her on the pod. And it was good that […]

As edtech evolves, LatAm reskilling platforms raise millions to bring outcomes into the mix

As Latin America attracts record-breaking venture capital totals, education technology startups in the region are given new opportunities to grow. In the past week, Coderhouse, a live cohort-based learning platform, and Crehana, an on-demand skills development service for the enterprise, both announced financing rounds. The back-to-back raises are a reminder that edtech’s relevance in LatAm isn’t […]