Participated · Seed · May 2025

Blooms provides an AI-driven platform that delivers trade finance, payments, and tailored FX solutions to Latin American produce exporters serving US and Canadian markets. The company’s tools aim to give fast access to working capital, simplify cross-border transactions, and improve cash flow for growers. Blooms was built by a team with expertise in fintech, agtech, and data science and is led by founder Francisco Meré. The startup’s mission is to strengthen the produce supply chain, reduce food waste, and contribute to lower and more stable food prices in North America. Blooms plans to use its technology to enable exporters to invest in sustainable farming and expansion. Financially, the company recently completed a seed funding round to accelerate these efforts.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2023

Verqor uses an alternative underwriting process that relies on farm productivity data and NDVI factors (supply chain, weather, price fluctuation and yield information) rather than traditional credit scores. It issues cashless credits and delivers inputs directly to farmers, while connecting them with corporates, importers and exporters who buy their products. Farmers repay loans through Verqor’s platform after the crop cycle completes. To date Verqor has pre-certified farmers for third-party financial institutions but plans to become an on-balance lender for roughly 60% of its business while keeping 40% off-balance. The company aims to approve loans in 48 hours or less and will invest in back-office automation and AI to digitize processes. Verqor will also expand throughout Mexico and continue building its network of ag corporates and partners. Founded in 2019 in Mexico, Verqor builds a platform that digitizes informal agricultural transactions to enable traceability and access to credit for small and medium farmers. The platform underwrites credit using productive analyses and alternative data, places approved credit as a balance for farmers to buy inputs (fertilizer, seeds, agro‑chemicals, biologicals, insecticides) and delivers those inputs directly. Verqor also connects farmers with buyers such as AB InBev, Heineken and exporters/importers in the U.S., routing payments through its platform to create transaction history. A core company goal is to reduce intermediaries and formalize supply‑chain traceability so farmers can access additional agtech tools. Verqor currently operates as a non‑banking financial institution and must run credit through third parties due to fintech regulations; the company plans a Series A to make itself the direct lender for credits it places. Short‑term plans include commercial growth across Mexico and, with investor support, potential Latin American expansion within roughly two years.

Led · Equity · Sep 2022

b4waste is a Brazilian foodtech that connects companies with food nearing expiration to consumers and buyers offering those products at roughly half price. The company received an investment of R$2 million in a round led by Latin‑American impact fund GLOCAL; other investors and advisors include Pierre Berenstein, Alexandre Rappaport, Rodrigo Rodrigues and the family office Ene2 Participações. With the funds, b4waste will expand operations across Brazil with the goal of covering the entire national territory during 2023. The platform reports more than 35,000 registered customers and over 100 partner stores, and says it has delivered more than R$2 million in savings to consumers to date. b4waste states it can reduce spoilage from expiry and maturation by up to 50% and offers a fast, no‑cost onboarding process for retail partners while digitizing operations to amplify socio‑environmental impact. The company was among 20 impact startups invited to present at COP26 in an initiative coordinated by IdeaGov and UK/Catapult. b4waste plans to start a new fundraising soon, seeking capital to quintuple its operation during 2023.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2022

Puna Bio develops biological inputs based on extremophiles isolated from La Puna to enhance nutrient uptake, stress tolerance and crop quality. Its non-GMO seed treatments aim to boost yields, reduce fertilizer use and enable cultivation on degraded soils. The company currently commercializes two products—Kunza (soybeans, cotton, beans) and Kanzama (wheat, barley)—deployed on over 800,000 acres in three commercial seasons. Puna Bio received initial funding in 2022 led by At One Ventures, which enabled establishment of its first laboratory and core team. The recent investment led by Corteva Catalyst will support deeper innovation and development of new products. Puna Bio plans to expand its business into the United States, Brazil, and Paraguay and has made progress on regulatory approvals and commercialization in those markets. Puna Bio builds a library of extremophile bacteria, archaea, fungi and yeasts and sells patented methods for cultivating, combining and applying those strains to seed stock. The company isolates organisms from extreme environments (e.g., high-altitude Andes, Great Salt Lake) under bioprospection partnerships and Nagoya Protocol agreements with host institutions. Their products are designed to work with farmers' existing seed‑treatment workflows and to act near plant roots without displacing native soil microbiomes, with some trials showing synergies with common beneficial microbes. Puna emphasizes using naturally high-performing organisms rather than genetically modifying microbes, claiming amplified nutrient‑uptake activity from gene copy number or novel biosynthetic pathways. The team includes co‑founders Franco Martínez Levis (CEO) and Elisa Violeta Bertini — the latter with extensive extremophile field experience and more than 150 published papers — plus Carolina Belfiore and María Eugenia Farías. Financially, the company recently closed a $3.7 million seed round to fund product launches, R&D and new facilities.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2022

Ucrop.it operates a blockchain-enabled platform that lets farmers register farm activities, log agreements with agro-processors and buyers, and generate verifiable "Crop Stories" documenting sustainable practices. The platform tracks metrics including energy use, fertilizer use, crop residue management and carbon intensity, and is offered free for farmers. Ucrop.it charges fees to corporate buyers for access to the verified data, with pricing set regionally (U.S. users pay more than LatAm counterparts). The company has onboarded 20 corporates and more than 700 growers and says it has mapped one million hectares of sustainable crops in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay this season. Ucrop.it is working on verification schemes to help growers access finance at a lower cost of capital and plans to use recent funding for regional expansion, new value-chain alliances, and platform upgrades. The startup was founded in 2018 by Diego Hoter, Marcos Botta and Matías O’Keefe and is expanding toward Brazil and the U.S. Ucrop.it provides an app-based platform that records crop-cycle information on a blockchain and uses confidential cryptographic storage to protect producers’ data. The platform lets growers choose which downstream companies can view their crop logs so buyers can vet sustainability practices in exchange for better payments. It operates as a freemium service for farmers while downstream corporate customers — including processors, seed and biotech firms, inputs dealers, service providers, and financial institutions — pay for access. The team has run numerous pilots in Argentina validating the concept and aligning incentives between farmers and buyers. Ucrop.it is building a sustainable soybean ecosystem that is nearing 200,000 hectares of coverage and plans to add carbon sequestration metrics to enhance its sustainability footprint. The company intends to use its recent funding to expand into soybean, cotton, corn, and wheat and to grow beyond Argentina into Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, and the US.