Stori became the new Mexican unicorn after surpassing the US$1 billion valuation barrier in a Series C extension.
In 2020 they launched their main product in Mexico, a digital credit card for which no annuity is paid and is processed online “in minutes” from a mobile phone. It is aimed mainly at the unbanked population, representing a very high percentage in Mexico and LatAm.
KitaBeli, an Indonesian social commerce platform focused on tier 2 and 3 cities, has raised a US$20 million funding round led by Glade Brook Capital Partners, a US-based growth equity investor. Launched in March 2020, KitaBeli offers fast-moving consumer goods on its gamified platform, allowing users and partners to get discounts and earn money by leveraging their social networks. It claims to be the largest direct-to-consumer social commerce platform in Indonesia.
With the acquisition of Mexican company, Urbvan, Swvl increases its presence and boosts its growth in Latin America. The Nasdaq-listed transportation startup acquired Urbvan for US$82 million and this expands its presence to 164 cities in 22 countries and boosts its growth in Latin America, where it already has a presence in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.
News organizations have long sought ways to make platforms like Meta and Google pay for the content they reproduce. Now Google says the value of news content is overrated, especially when it comes to ad revenue. A study conducted by Google in eight European countries found no change to Search ad revenue and less than 1% drop in usage when the content from 13,000 EU publishers was removed.