The Latin American accelerator of Chilean origin, Platanus Ventures, presents its sixth generation amidst the boom in investments in early-stage startups. Batch 6 of Platanus Ventures is filled with startups in the marketplace industry and software as a service (SaaS), but it also includes other sectors such as edtech, proptech, or the innovative web3.
SoftBank, the Japanese bank that has spawned several unicorns in Latin America, announced it will launch a second fund under its Opportunity Growth Fund to raise and invest US$150 million in Black and Latino-led startups. The new fund expects to deploy the US$150 million within three years, and SoftBank will be a limited partner.
Brazilian fintech company Ebanx S.A. has disclosed plans to operate in 11 African markets by the end of 2023. EBANX expanded into Africa in September 2022 with hopes to replicate its fast growth in Latin America by placing a greater emphasis on the digital payments side of its business.
GrowthLoop will use TransUnion identity data to improve U.S. consumer match rates on client files sent to advertising media such as Facebook and Google Ads. The data should also help clients to find matches among records within their files, building more accurate customer profiles. GrowthLoop calls itself a “composable CDP”, meaning it works with data assembled in external data warehouses.