Why 2021 was a breakout year for Latin America’s VC ecosystem
 

As 2021 is wrapping up, we reflect on what has been the most eventful year for the VC Ecosystem in Latam, with record-high investment from global players in the Region. We would like to share this article from Pitchbook, “Why 2021 was a breakout year for Latin America’s VC ecosystem”, that includes a quote from our own Partner, Fabrice Serfati.

We are proud to be part of the VC Ecosystem’s evolution in the Region and excited for what is to come. The time is now to invest in Latam!

 

 

 

 

 

Mountain View-based cryptobank Abra has announced the closing of their Series C led by IGNIA, through an SPV (See Fortune article here). The Company raised $55MM from IGNIA, Blockchain Capital, Lerer Hippeau, American Express Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation, Kingsway Capital, and Tiga Investments at a $340MM post-money valuation. IGNIA initially invested in Abra’s Pre-Series B Round and has played a key role in the Company’s expansion in Latin America as the only investor from the Region. Abra has had a significant growth in the past year becoming a leading wealth management platform for crypto investing. IGNIA is immensely proud to be partnered with Abra in this journey to revolutionize the cryptoasset and finance industries. Congratulations to Bill Barhydt (Founder & CEO) and the entire Abra team.

 

Abra was founded in 2014 in Mountain View, California and has rapidly grown to become a full scale cryptobank, offering trading, borrowing and interest earning capabilities on cryptoassets. The Company has experienced exponential growth, by July 2021, Abra revenues are 4 times the 2020 annual total, and is up to over $1 BN in AUM, as they continue to add new features, providing a safe and secure platform to manage crypto. Abra operates in over 100+ countries around the globe.

Mexico’s Leading SMB Financial Management SaaS to Join SUMA’s Global Platform

Ciudad de México, al 19 de enero de 2021. IGNIA y Nexxus Capital (“Nexxus”) anuncian que han llevado a cabo una alianza estratégica, a través de la cual Nexxus tendrá una participación accionaria en el General Partner (GP) de IGNIA, administrador enfocado en Venture Capital. Esta alianza, aprovechará la experiencia y habilidades probadas de ambas firmas en sus respectivas clases de activos para seguir apoyando el crecimiento de capital emprendedor en América Latina, que ha mostrado una tasa de crecimiento anual del 86% de 2013 a 2019.

La experiencia compartida de los dos administradores de fondos fortalece a ambas organizaciones para lograr mejores rendimientos para sus inversionistas.

El cofundador y socio director de IGNIA, Álvaro Rodríguez, comentó: “Nexxus es el fondo más exitoso y con mayor experiencia en México. Su entrada al GP de IGNIA es un aval a nuestras capacidades como un fondo de VC de primer nivel y una declaración que subraya el potencial de VC en la región. En los últimos años esta clase de activo ha logrado un avance increíble y llama la atención a nivel internacional por su muy alto crecimiento sostenido. Estamos entusiasmados de ser el socio indicado para Nexxus y con esto fortalecer nuestra firma y acercarlos al futuro de la economía digital de América Latina, aprovechando nuestra experiencia en inversiones en soluciones habilitadas por la tecnología”.

Arturo Saval, presidente del consejo de Nexxus, comentó: “Esta alianza permitirá a Nexxus seguir diversificándose en distintas clases de activos a través de un equipo dedicado, enfocado, reconocido y con más de 10 años de experiencia en Venture Capital. Para Nexxus es muy relevante continuar con nuestra evolución y esta alianza complementa nuestra visión y la detección de oportunidades tanto en el entorno local como en el internacional. Estamos seguros, que a través de la experiencia de IGNIA y de participar a través de ellos en los mercados de Venture Capital, podremos seguir creciendo y mejorando para salvaguardar los intereses de quienes nos otorgan su confianza.”.
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Acerca de Ignia

IGNIA es el fondo de inversión de venture capital más grande de México, enfocado en el apoyo a emprendimientos en cualquier industria y etapa de desarrollo, que cuenten con una propuesta de valor que cambie su forma de hacer negocios. Fue fundado por Álvaro Rodríguez y Michael Chu en 2007, y ha invertido en más de 20 empresas de industrias como fintech, retail, educación y e-commerce. Para más información, visite http://www.ignia.vc

Acerca de Nexxus

Nexxus es uno de los principales administradores en Capital Privado en México y España. Hasta el fin del 2020, Nexxus ha realizado 41 inversiones, incluyendo 9 financiamientos otorgados a través de Nexxus Mezzanine Fund I, y 7 inversiones en España y Portugal a través de Nexxus Iberia I, con equipos dedicados; Así mismo, Nexxus ha desinvertido totalmente de 14 empresas de su portafolio habiendo también completado ciclos de 3 fondos. Nexxus ha levantado y administrado siete fondos con compromisos de capital y coinversiones acumulados por más de $1,630 millones de dólares, y es el único administrador de activos alternos en Latino América que ha listado seis compañías en los mercados de valores.

Para más información favor de visitar http://www.ignia.vc, http://www.nexxuscapital.com o contactar a:
Christine Chang
Relación con inversionistas
ccc@ignia.vc
info@ignia.vc
(81) 8000-7164

Christianne Ibanez
Relación con inversionistas
cibanez@nexxuscapital.com
ir@nexxuscapital.com
(55) 5292-3400

● The fastest growing challenger bank in Mexico seeks to reach more than 500,000 users in the next 12 months.
● Fondeadora is Google´s most recent and first bet in a FinTech company worldwide.

Mexico City, August 31, 2020: Fondeadora (https://fondeadora.com/), Fondeadora, the Mexican challenger bank leader in the market, closed a Series A investment round of US$14 MM led by Gradient Ventures, Google’s early stage venture fund. Also, participated in this round Scott Belsky, Product Director of Adobe and Founder of Behance – the largest online platform for showcasing the creative industry works – as well as other investment funds like Y Combinator, IGNIA, FinTech Collective and Sound Ventures, this last founded by Ashton Kutcher.

“We are very excited to partner with Norman and Rene and their vision of building the best neobank experience in Latam” said Darian Shirazi, General Partner of Gradient Ventures / Google. “The growth they have shown, as well as the user experience they have built, gives us full confidence that Fondeadora will become one of the main ways for Mexican consumers to move, spend and save their money”.

Gradient Ventures is Google’s investment fund focused on supporting early stage startups by providing capital, resources and education. Founded in July 2017, Gradient has invested in 60 companies whereby Fondeadora is its most recent and first bet in a FinTech company worldwide.

“While financial markets are focused on financial optimization, design focuses on user experience”, said Rene Serrano, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Fondeadora. “As founders, we decided to reinvent the bank, through a design-driven vision”.

Created in 2018, Fondeadora was co-founded by Norman Müller and Rene Serrano, a couple of designers who saw the opportunity to merge technology and design, to revolutionize the banking experience for Mexicans. Through its services, Fondeadora seeks to facilitate consumer’s immediate access to their money and give them freedom to use it whenever they want.

“We are very excited to continue supporting Norman and Rene in consolidating the leading position of Fondeadora in the Mexican FinTech sector. The great team they have managed to put together coupled with Fondeadora’s highly innovative solution, have the potential to revolutionize the way Mexicans use financial services. Likewise, welcoming such relevant co-investors in the Mexican startup ecosystem is a great satisfaction”, said Fabrice Serfati, Partner of IGNIA.

Just one year after starting operations in Mexico, Fondeadora has more than 150,000 active deposit accounts, receives monthly transactions for more than MX$400 MM and experiences growth of 40% month over month. In addition, it operates with the technological and operational infrastructure of a bank, which increases the type of services that it can offer to its users.

“México continues to lag in the financial services industry, there is still a lot to build”, adds Norman Müller, Co-Founder and Co-CEO. “There is a large underserved market that needs a bank to be focused on understanding and addressing the real needs for its users. With that in mind, we want to become the new standard for financial services in the region”.

With the capital raised in this investment round, Fondeadora will seek to reach more than 500,000 users in the next 12 months. In this respect, it will continue its growth in the region and will continue working to offer its users a spectacular service experience and fulfill the objective of becoming the leading premium savings account in México.

In addition, Fondeadora will soon implement the QR code payment modality, as well as the production of infoless cards, which will allow them to offer the safest card and account in Mexico.

About IGNIA
IGNIA is a venture capital firm that invests in Mexico and Latin America in high growth digital platforms that serve the needs of consumers in the emerging middle class in sectors such as financial services, education and eCommerce. Founded in 2007, IGNIA has two funds with $200 million dollars under management. For more information please visit: http://www.ignia.mx, http://www.igniaunlocked.mx and @IGNIA_Fund

About Gradient Ventures
Gradient Ventures is Google’s venture fund with technical mentorship for early stage startups. Through Gradient, Google provides startups with capital resources and exclusive Access to experts, and training bootcamps. Gradient takes a minority stake in the startups they invest in.

About Fondeadora
Fondeadora is an app linked to a debit card that allows you to send, spend and save your money with simplicity never seen before. We seek to provide financial access to all of Mexico through technology, in order to democratize a system that has always been closed to millions of Mexicans. Fondeadora manages to solve the inefficiencies of the old banks to return their time, money and energy to their users.

Contact FONDEADORA
Pamela Olvera pamela@fondeadora.com
Cheryl Santos cheryl@fondeadora.com
Saúl Lomelí saul@netacomunicacion.mx
Valentina Ugarte valentina@netacomunicacion.mx

Contact IGNIA
Jimena García Cuéllar
Investor and Institutional Relations
Tel: +52 (55) 8000 7295
Email: jgc@ignia.mx

Mexico City, April 9, 2019 –Takeoff, the technology company that allows supermarkets to sell their products online (e-Groceries) in a profitable and efficient way, receives investment from IGNIA, which is added to the list of investors of the company as the only venture capital fund. This is the result of IGNIA´s ability to attract extraordinary global opportunities.

Takeoff offers supermarkets an alternative to compete profitably in the online market, through the construction of hyper local micro fulfillment centers operated by robots, which allows supermarkets to satisfy the demand of online orders, and deliver them quickly and economically.

Takeoff offers a complete end-to-end solution that encompasses the e-commerce platform, the management of the supply chain, the logistics, and the automated fulfillment solution, and it is ready to be implemented with existing grocery retailers. Thanks to Takeoff, different supermarket chains can adapt to the new consumption habits of their customers, without having to make massive investments and achieving profitability.

Takeoff was co-founded by José Vicente Aguerrevere; veteran in the supermarket sector, founder of DiaDia Practimercados, a disruptive supermarket chain in Latin America, and a former consultant at Booz Allen and Hamilton; and Max Pedro, who was vice president of Walmart International and former consultant at McKinsey. Together they lead a team of approximately 100 people, based in Boston, Massachusetts and Kiev, Ukraine.

Takeoff currently operates in the US, and the capital raised will allow them to continue with the accelerated pace that demands the current market. Takeoff’s vision is to expand its international presence in 2020, with Mexico, Australia, Chile and Canada among potential markets.

“The number of people who buy their groceries online has grown at an accelerated pace in recent years, and it is expected that, in a period of 5 to 7 years, 70% of consumers will buy their groceries through the Internet, according to the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and Nielsen. With these trends, Takeoff has a unique opportunity to position itself as the provider of the most cost-effective solution for supermarkets that want to compete in the e-Groceries sector”, commented Fabrice Serfati, Partner at IGNIA.

“We are proud to have IGNIA as Takeoff´s investor. Both IGNIA and Takeoff align on the broader mission of reinventing the way we do business to achieve significantly higher performance, in this case reinventing e-Groceries”, said Jose Vicente Aguerrevere, Co-Founder and CEO of Takeoff Technologies.

About IGNIA

IGNIA is a venture capital firm that invests in high growth enterprises targeting the emerging middle class of Mexico. Founded in 2007, IGNIA has two funds with $200 million dollars under management. IGNIA invests in sectors such as healthcare, fintech, financial services, education and basic services. For more information please visit: http://www.ignia.mx and @IGNIA_Fund.

About Takeoff

Takeoff offers an e-Grocery solution (online shopping) that allows food retailers to achieve profitable online growth by using automation on a “hyper-local” scale. Buyers place their orders online through established retailers (whether they use their own existing e-commerce platform or Takeoff’s customized UI solution) and Takeoff’s automated technology arms orders using robots in micro stores or “Micro Fulfillment Centers”. The company was founded by José V. Aguerrevere and Max Pedro in 2016, and recently closed its Series B investment round, bringing the total capital raised to $62 million dollars.

The company’s robotic infrastructure is proven and ready to be implemented on a large scale thanks to Takeoff’s exclusive partnership with Knapp – the leading global provider of warehouse automation. The innovative Takeoff model of automated micro-warehouses or “Micro Fulfillment Centers”, operates with a much lower service cost than other e-commerce platforms, solving both the cost of putting together the order and the last mile. This translates into savings for both buyers and retailers. For more information, visit www.takeoff.com

 

 

Contact IGNIA

Jimena Garcia Cuellar

Investor and Institutional Relations

Tel: +52 (55) 8000 7295

Email: jgc@ignia.mx

Contact Takeoff

Jose Vicente Arreguevere, Co- FounderTakeoff

Lucia Brower, Chief of Staff

Email: jose@takeoff.com

Email: lucia@takeoff.com

Mexico City, April 2, 2019 – IGNIA (http://www.ignia.mx), completed the repayment of its debt with the Inter-American Development Bank (“IDB”) after the partial exit of IGNIA Fund I from its investment in Provive.

IGNIA´s partial exit and the subsequent repayment of its debt to the IDB took place after Provive closed a major debt transaction with a fund from an important international bank. Provive will use the funding to accelerate its growth and to substantially improve its capital structure by refinancing its existing debt.

IGNIA was Provive´s first investor, and has supported the company since 2011. To date, Provive has generated nearly $5,000 million pesos in value with the recovery of more than 8,500 homes, supporting 50,000 Mexican families in the cities from Tijuana, Mexicali, Ciudad Juárez and Hermosillo. Its program operates through the collaboration of Provive and Fundación Tu+Yo; the first is in charge of acquiring, rehabilitating and selling abandoned homes, while the Fundación Tu+Yo implements programs that promote education, organization and participation of community members to meet and solve their needs. Together, they have achieved the development of more prosperous, strong and active communities through improved access to housing and a better quality of life.

“Provive has proven to be a highly successful company in the field of urban regeneration of low-income communities. This is reflected, in part, in the excellent return that the Company has generated for investors like IGNIA, and confirms our investment thesis of supporting companies focused on the emerging middle class. We are confident that Provive will continue to grow and generate value for its shareholders, we continue to have an important equity stake in this venture. Additionally, we are excited that a world-class bank has joined us in this endeavor”, said Fabrice Serfati, Partner of IGNIA.

About IGNIA

IGNIAis a venture capital firm that invests in high growth enterprises targeting the emerging middle class of Mexico. Founded in 2007, IGNIA has two funds with $200 million dollars under management. IGNIA invests in sectors such as fintech, financial services, e-commerce, software services, education and basic services. For more information please visit: http://www.ignia.mx and @IGNIA_Fund.

About PROVIVE

Provive is an organization founded in 2009 by José Antonio Diaz, an entrepreneur who detected the problems generated by the abandonment of housing in Tijuana, such as insecurity, delinquency and social backwardness. The organization is responsible for rehabilitating low-income housing that are under a high rate of abandonment and a marked social decomposition. For more information, please visit http://www.provive.mx.

Contact IGNIA

Jimena García-Cuéllar

Investor and Institutional Relations Manager

Tel: +52 (55) 8000 7295

Email: jgc@ignia.mx

 

 

 

March 19, 2019 Sao Paulo; Brazil – DogHero (www.doghero.com.br), the Brazilian pet care marketplace that provides personalized dog boarding and walking services throughout Latin America, announced today it has closed a US$7 million Series B financing round led by Rover.com, the world´s largest pet care company. Prior investor IGNIA Partners, a Mexican venture capital firm, also participated. The investment will allow DogHero to continue executing on its mission of making dog parenting easier, accelerating growth throughout LatAm, home to 100+ dogs.

Both DogHero and Rover.com have played a role on reshaping the global pet care industry, building trusted networks of five-star dog sitters to simplify the way pet owners find and book pet care. Based in Sao Paulo, DogHero has 800,000 registered pets and a community of 16,000 dog hosts and walkers in 750 cities across Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. The Company continues to post solid growth rates, strengthening DogHero´s position as the undisputed leader in the region. The investment gives Rover exposure to the important Latin American market, consolidating its global footprint after it made forays in Europe, with the acquisition of DogBuddy. Founded in 2011 in Seattle, Rover is already active in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Spain, and the Netherlands.

“It is a big day for DogHero: we know that we are in the right trajectory when the team that built the world´s largest pet sitter network decides to back our plans for Latin America”, said DogHero´s co-founder Eduardo Baer. “DogHero and Rover both share the mission of making dog parenting easier throughout the world. With this investment we are one step closer to fulfilling this mission, enabling us to bring our services to even more dog owners”.

“Our pets are family, and we´re dedicated to providing the best pet care for owners worldwide”, said Megan Teepe, Vice President GM of International. “As we continue to grow as the global leader, we´re pleased to develop a better understanding of the Latin American market. DogHero has proven record of success, as we look forward to joining them in their journey.”

In 2019, DogHero plans to roll out the new dog walking service in more cities throughout LatAm while also accelerating growth in the core dog boarding business. “We are glad to double down our support DogHero, a protagonist in the LatAm sharing economy with an outstanding team”, said Alvaro Rodriguez Arregui, co-founder and Managing Partner of IGNIA.  Customers love the product: 98% of them recommended DogHero to friends and family. “Our goal is to provide more solutions for dog owners while continuing to work on enhancing the current experience. That´s what drives us” said DogHero´s co-founder Fernando Gadotti.  In its four years since launching, DogHero received more than US$12 M in investments. Prior investors include leading LAtAm VC´s Kaszek Ventures (Argentina) and Monashees (Brazil) and Global Founders Capital from Germany.

About DogHero

Founded in 2014 in Sao Paolo, DogHero is a peer-to-peer services marketplace that connects pet owners to trusted sitters and walkers. With over 800,000 registered dogs, it´s backed by VCs Global Founders Capital (Geermany), IGNIA partners (México), Monashees (Brazil), Kaszek Ventures (Argentina) and Rover.com, world’s largest pet care company. DogHero offers veterinary guarantee in case of any incident during the stay, a dedicated team of training and support of hosts, and other safety measures that make the pet experience the best possible. Anyone who is crazy for dogs and has a suitable and comfortable physical structure can apply to become a host. To learn more about DogHero, please visit http://www.doghero.com.br  

Contact IGNIA

Jimena García-Cuéllar

Investor and Institutional Relations

Tel: +52 (55) 8000 7295

Email: jgc@ignia.mx

The companies are leaders in Mexico, Colombia and Spain, with more than 8 million users.

Mexico City, March 25, 2019: GoTrendier (https://www.gotrendier.mx/) announces its merger with Chicfy (https://www.chicfy.com/), the largest merger of second-hand fashion startups in the Spanish-speaking market. Driven by the same mission, to create an alternative to fast fashion and to build the largest second-hand fashion platform in the countries which they operate, the group will focus on continuing to accelerate its growth and to expand into new countries.

This merger is a great step that will allow both companies strengthen and boost their growth, as well as creating synergies in strategic areas such as technology, finance and marketing, which will allow the development of functionalities to generate a better experience for the user and to continue to scale in current markets. The objective is to create a large marketplace for buying and selling second-hand clothing in the Spanish-speaking market with the opening of new business subsidiaries in Latin America.

There is great potential in the second-hand fashion market, both companies already have more than 8 million users, with a catalog of garments that exceeds 12 million active products. In this last year, the combined activity has generated one million transactions with a transaction volume of €25 million, consolidating the business model in Europe and Latin America. Both business models are transactional, C2C (consumer to consumer), logistically integrated to provide users the best services by guaranteeing the quality of the products through the validation by the style team.

“The great beneficiaries of this merger will be the users, as the teams are strengthened with top-level professionals, with the main objective of improving the quality of service and experience. However, the operations will continue independently in each country”, expresed Belén Cabido, founder and CEO of GoTrendier.

“The success of a company is based on an exhaustive analysis of the business and how to correctly interpret the numbers, therefore, this union allows us to obtain business intelligence to help both companies to scale more quickly”, commented Jesús Monleón, CEO of Chicfy.

“Both GoTrendier and Chicfy have managed to be highly successful in the markets in which they operate, so this merger represents a great opportunity for growth, lowering costs, improving technologies, always with the focus of offering a quality experience for users” , said Christine Kenna, Partner at IGNIA.

“The purchase and sale of second-hand clothing among individuals is a model of success worldwide, and the second-hand clothing market is expected to move US$400 billion in 2022. With the merger of the two companies, we become the largest player in the Spanish-speaking countries”, says Luis Martín Cabiedes, Partner at Cabiedes & Partners

About Chicfy

Founded in Spain in 2013. Chicfy is the leading second-hand fashion marketplace in Spain for men, women and children. The main differentiating factor of Chicfy is the creation of a community based on second-hand fashion. The company has shareholders such as Luis Martín Cabiedes, business angels of seedrocket and for a few months, with GoTrendier. The consolidated team reaches 45 people who make this company a very efficient company in capital and that hopes to reach break even by the end of the year.

About GoTrendier

Founded in Mexico in 2016. GoTrendier has the largest second-hand fashion community in Latin America. The startup has a team of 20 people operating in Mexico, Colombia and Spain. Partners like Bonsai, Antai, Pedralbes from the beginning, later joining in a second round IGNIA, Banco Sabadell and Ataria Ventures. GoTrendier has raised more than €5 million, this last round aims to open new countries in Latin America.

Contact GoTrendier

Belén Cabido Aresti

Fundadora / CEO

Email: belen@gotrendier.mx

Contact Chicfy

Jesús Monleón

CEO

Email: jesus@chicfy.com

Mexico City – February 13, 2019 – Rapyd, a global fintech-as-a-service platform that enables businesses and consumers to pay or be paid however they choose, using any payment method or cash for local and cross-border e-commerce, today announced a $40 million series B financing round led by General Catalyst and Stripe, with participation from Target Global, IGNIA and other strategic payments and fintech companies.

With this investment, Rapyd will expand its technology platform that supports any local or cross-border commerce use case requiring local payments, such as bank transfers, e-wallets, and cash for local acceptance and payouts. Rapyd addresses a significant and growing market opportunity as more than half of all transactions worldwide are facilitated via bank transfer, but merchants find it increasingly difficult to digitally enable local payment methods and process cross-border sales that are critical for international expansion.

“We’re excited to work with our new partners General Catalyst, Stripe, Target Global, IGNIA, and others, who today join our earlier investors including seed and series A lead TaL Capital. This marks a critical inflection point in our evolution as a company and at a time when market demand for our fintech-as-a-service platform approach is accelerating,” said Arik Shtilman, Co-founder and CEO of Rapyd.

“Rapyd’s product offering helps merchants, banks, telcos and fintech companies expand the scope of the products they offer, increase the number of customers they reach, and improve the overall customer experience, said Adam Valkin, Partner of General Catalyst. “Rapyd does this by helping drive the ubiquity of payment and payout options beyond debit and credit cards, towards cash, bank transfers, instant payments, e-wallets, and mobile money.”

“As global commerce continues to grow, the market opportunity for online merchants, the gig economy, online lenders and banks looking to provide access to funds instantly, is constrained due to the challenges of accepting and making local payment methods and cash transactions,” added Shtilman. “Rapyd helps businesses and their customers pay and be paid however they choose by seamlessly integrating any local payment method or cash to run any digital application from a single API.”

“Rapyd is a rare example of a unique solution allowing merchants and banks that work globally to be able to access hundreds of payment methods with one integration around the world. This ensures access to services for those who are most in need so that they can pay the way they are used to rather than being obliged to use the existing rails of card schemes,” noted Mike Lobanov, General Partner of Target Global. “We see the future in seamless payments with more and more transactions happening inside closed ecosystems through e-wallets. The global economy needs a modernized infrastructure which Rapyd is building.”

“Early on we saw and backed Rapyd’s vision to fundamentally re-think how financial management, money movement, and payment services could be delivered through a cloud computing model through a single technology stack. By removing the complexity and difficulty of managing geographic expansion, regulations, and new features businesses can focus on building the best fintech applications without worrying about backend systems that work on a global scale”, noted Eyal Dior, co-Managing Partner at TaL Capital. “We were pleased to lead Rapyd’s seed round and to co-lead their Series A funding. It is great to see market and investor acceptance of their Fintech-as-a-service vision.”

In addition to enabling local payments Rapyd also provides (1) Single Point of Reconciliation and Settlement of all funds across 65 currencies and the ability to payout in over 170 countries, (2) Advanced real-time foreign exchange services, that on average, provide a lower cost to clients and their consumers, and are more profitable, due to advanced FX hedging technology, and (3) Comprehensive global Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/Counter Financing Terrorism (CFT) services.

About General Catalyst

General Catalyst is a venture capital firm with approximately $5B raised to date that makes early-stage and transformational investments. We back fearless entrepreneurs who have the potential to build market-leading technology companies like Airbnb, BigCommerce, ClassPass, Datalogix, Datto, Demandware, Gusto, HubSpot, KAYAK, Oscar, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker. With offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City and Boston, our portfolio companies benefit from a bicoastal network of talent, customers, and opportunity. For more: http://www.generalcatalyst.com.

About Target Global

Target Global is an international Venture Capital firm headquartered in Berlin, with €700m in assets under management. Connecting the key European startup ecosystems we leverage the unique DNA of each of our target geographies, across our global network. Building on our experienced team with substantial operational and investment experience, we help exceptional entrepreneurs to build market leaders. Target Global follows a lifecycle approach, investing in fast-growing online platforms, targeting trillion $ markets. Our partners have been investing for more than 15 years in the digital technology space, backing some of the European success stories. The Target Global portfolio includes companies such as Auto1, Delivery Hero, GoEuro, Dreamlines, Rapyd, and WeFox. For more: http://www.targetglobal.vc

About TaL Capital

TaL Capital is a Private Investment Fund investing in promising early-stage high-tech companies with a focus on Healthcare and Fintech. Comprised of seasoned professionals and business leaders, our group has extensive connections and expertise ranging from technical know-how to operations and marketing, to strategic proficiency. At each stage of the business life cycle, our team supports the Fund’s array of portfolio companies by providing them with valuable input into strategy-building, networking, strategic alliances, and funding. TaL Capital seeks companies that offer unique technology, strong commercial potential, and outstanding leadership teams. For more information contact at eyal@tal-capital.com.

About IGNIA

IGNIA is a venture capital fund that invests in high growth companies aimed at the emerging middle class in Mexico. IGNIA invests in sectors such as fintech, financial services, payments, saas, marketplaces and gig economy, among others. For more: http://www.ignia.mx and @IGNIA Fund.

About Rapyd

Rapyd provides a fintech-as-a-service platform that helps businesses and their customers pay and be paid however they choose. The Rapyd platform supports any payment method for in-country or cross-border commerce use cases. Businesses can seamlessly integrate payment methods like bank transfers, e-wallets, or cash into any digital application from a single API and scale them globally across multiple payments networks. Rapyd operates the world’s largest local payments network that connects to over 2B+ consumers transacting around the corner and across the globe. For more information visit http://www.rapyd.net.

Media contact:

Lumina Communications for Rapyd

Marshall Hampson / Danielle Scotto

408-680-0561 / 646-775-6303

Rapyd@Luminapr.com