The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Jun 2024

Celcoin provides financial infrastructure and Banking-as-a-Service solutions focused on payments, banking, and lending, enabling personalized embedded finance for banks, fintechs and non-financial companies. The company serves more than 6,000 business customers, including over 400 financial-industry clients and more than 5,000 non-financial firms. Celcoin is a leading provider of Open Banking solutions in Brazil and processes over 200 million Pix transactions monthly. It has pursued product development and inorganic growth, completing four acquisitions since 2022 (Galax Pay, Flow Finance, Finansystech and Reg+). Celcoin reported US$63 million in annual recurring revenue in Q1 2024, a 140% increase year-over-year. The company plans to accelerate investments in technology and innovation and to evaluate both organic and M&A-driven growth opportunities to strengthen its position in BaaS and embedded finance. Celcoin offers financial-technology and banking infrastructure through APIs that enable Pix, open banking, bill and tax payments, mobile top-ups, gift cards, direct debit, ATM withdrawals, transfers and collections. After acquiring Flow Finance, Celcoin added infrastructure for companies to offer credit products via APIs (working capital, personal loans, BNPL, payroll-deducted private loans and others). The company recently acquired Galax Pay (recurring billing and subacquiring) and Flow Finance as part of its expansion. Celcoin received a license from the Banco Central to operate as a Payment Institution, strengthening governance and improving robustness and margins. Management says it will pursue growth organically and via M&A to consolidate its position in the financial-infrastructure segment across the region. Celcoin provides Open Finance infrastructure via APIs for Pix, bill payments, mobile top-ups, deposits and withdrawals (Banco24Horas and retail), direct debit, DDA, transport top-ups, streaming platforms and gaming. It launched Open Banking APIs earlier this year and already counts dozens of customers using them to access user data and offer personalized products. More than 170 clients — including banks, fintechs, digital wallets, brokerages, ERPs, marketplaces, mobile operators and loyalty companies — use Celcoin’s platform, and over 36,000 banking correspondents are connected to distribute services in stores. Monthly more than eight million people transact through Celcoin, moving over R$1.5 billion, and the company’s transaction volume has more than quadrupled in the past 12 months. Founded in 2016, Celcoin positions itself as a modular "Lego" of open financial services that helps digital banks and fintechs scale offerings previously restricted to large banks. The company plans to use new capital to accelerate product development, acquire complementary API startups, and complete licensing as a Payment Institution and Payment Transaction Initiator with BACEN.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2021

Glanris has developed the Glanris 901xTM, a patented green hybrid filtration media produced by converting rice hulls into a customized filtration material. The 901x reportedly removes organic contaminants faster than activated carbon and removes dissolved metals as effectively as ion exchange resins, at a fraction of the cost. The media is designed for faster kinetics, lower disposal costs due to easy evaporation, and continued filtration performance even in landfills. Glanris is testing the product in five vertical markets and currently serves industrial customers including HVAC manufacturers and automobile makers; it plans to sell into the residential market after completing NSF 61 certification this summer. The company opened a 60,000 square foot production facility in Olive Branch, Mississippi, capable of producing up to three tons of media per day using its patented kiln. To date Glanris has raised $2.8 million in total investment.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2018

iFood operates a food-delivery marketplace and technology platform that connects consumers, restaurants and a large courier network. The service is a core business unit of Brazilian technology conglomerate Movile and is central to Movile’s strategy to link online and offline commerce. iFood reported strong operating metrics in the article: roughly 10.4 million delivery orders in October, 390,000 daily orders in Brazil in late October (109% year-over-year growth), about 10.8 million monthly orders serving 9 million Brazilian customers, and a network of 50,000 restaurants and 120,000 couriers. Movile overall is cited as having estimated revenues of more than $240 million and more than 150 million monthly active users. Future plans described include investing in a state-of-the-art technology platform and growing courier and restaurant partners to better serve customers across Latin America, as iFood is positioned to lead Movile’s expansion. The business is presented as fueling Movile’s wider goal of reaching one billion people through its ecosystem of content, payments and delivery services. iFood operates a mobile-first online food delivery service in Brazil, partnering with restaurants to enable phone-based ordering and fulfillment. The company has signed deals with over 10,000 partner restaurants and is handling roughly 1.7 million deliveries each month. iFood emphasizes improving its mobile experience and plans regional expansion, including a push into Mexico tied to acquiring SinDelantal. It recently secured a $30 million financing to support that regional expansion and consolidation. Movile is a majority backer and JUST EAT is a significant shareholder, and iFood has been active in M&A to grow its footprint. iFood operates a mobile-first food delivery app that enables customers to order takeout across Brazil, with strong emphasis on mobile ordering. The company reports that roughly 75% of its orders and nine out of ten new users come from mobile. It closed 2014 with over 500,000 delivery requests per month, capturing about 80% of Brazil’s online restaurant delivery market and growing 10–12% month over month (targeting one million deliveries per month by year-end). iFood relies on a delivery fleet (about 900 moto-bike drivers through a partnership with Movile’s Rapiddo) and has expanded rapidly since a 2011 spin-out from Disk Cook. Management says the capital will be used to close the online-ordering gap, boost marketing, expand into more cities, and build out team and technology. iFood is an online food-delivery platform that offers ordering and delivery through web and mobile apps. Its core product connects consumers to restaurants for delivery and the company launched iPhone and Android apps roughly six months before the article. Mobile orders grew from zero to 20% of overall business in that six-month span. iFood is fulfilling more than 50,000 orders per month from over 1,000 restaurants, and its revenues were rising at about 10% per month. The company expects to be used by more than 5,000 restaurants by 2014 and sees a $4 billion opportunity in Brazil. iFood is positioned to expand into other Latin American markets and potentially the U.S., with support from mobile-distribution partners.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2018

Movile is a Latin American tech holding that owns and backs businesses including Brazilian delivery app iFood, fintechs MovilePay and Zoop, and Colombia-based logistics company Mensajeros Urbanos. The company’s portfolio spans food delivery, payments/fintech and last-mile logistics, with Mensajeros Urbanos expanding into Mexico. Movile said it will use the new capital to fund expansion across its current companies. The firm reported revenue growth of about 80% a year over the last three years, without disclosing absolute revenue figures. Prosus, described as a major shareholder and global consumer internet group, is the investor behind the new funding. The announcement was reported from Sao Paulo by Reuters. Movile operates iFood, a meal-delivery app that is the largest food delivery service in Latin America. iFood runs in 483 Brazilian cities and supports 120,000 motorcycle delivery drivers serving 50,000 restaurants. The platform averaged about 390,000 deliveries per day in October, more than double the same period in 2017, and achieved unicorn status roughly a year and a half ago. Movile announced a $500 million funding package to grow iFood, with $400 million pledged this week and $100 million raised in the past several weeks. The company plans to use the capital to invest in artificial intelligence and optimize delivery logistics, and has said it can triple the number of restaurants on the platform. Founder and president Eduardo Henrique disclosed the raise in an interview with Reuters, and Naspers has reiterated its commitment to backing the company. Movile operates a portfolio of consumer-facing businesses, notably the food delivery service iFood, payments platform Zoop, and ticketing platform Sympla. The company follows a buy-and-build strategy, making investments in promising startups across Latin America and incubating subsidiaries such as iFood. Movile reports about 150 million users per month across its application ecosystem, and company executives say many of its businesses are growing at over 100% per year. Leadership cites Chinese super-apps like Meituan and WeChat as models for long-term expansion and integration. The company plans to use the latest funding to expand iFood, Zoop and Sympla and to continue making acquisitions and investments in the region. Movile is positioning itself to capture the large Brazilian market and broader Latin American opportunity through both organic growth and further deals. Movile is a Latin American marketplace developer whose business lines include logistics and delivery, ticketing, online gaming and education. Its most capital‑intensive and investor‑attracting business is iFood, a leading food delivery company in Latin America. As of September 2017 the company had reached 6.2 million monthly orders and become the largest food delivery company in the region. CEO Fabricio Bloisi views food delivery as a gateway to other online‑to‑offline commercial transactions and plans to leverage iFood to expand into logistics, financial services and other areas. Movile also operates subsidiaries and products such as PlayKids, Apontador, Rapiddo and Sympla that fit into its broader marketplace strategy. The company has attracted substantial investor capital—over $250 million to date—and is using new funds to scale iFood’s technology platform and accelerate product development. Movile operates a suite of consumer businesses including its Rappido subsidiary and is pursuing a single‑point marketplace for services such as food delivery, ticketing, top‑ups and gaming. The company intends to replicate the integrated super‑app model exemplified by Tencent and Line, and to expand that services suite across Latin America. Movile is backed by Naspers, which increased its commitment to the company as part of the latest financing. The company has reported a compound annual growth rate of 60 percent over the last eight years. The new capital will be used to expand Rappido’s marketplace ambitions and to grow food delivery, ticketing and gaming businesses across the region. Movile’s plan includes launching marketplace features that let users order tickets, top up minutes and get food or groceries through a single messaging point of access.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2015

Jampp provides a platform for mobile app advertisers to acquire and re-engage users globally by buying mobile media inventory through its Conversion Driven Real Time Bidding engine. The engine dynamically bids on inventory across 18 RTB exchanges and over 150 mobile ad networks. Led by co-founder Diego Meller, the company operates teams in Buenos Aires, London, San Francisco, São Paulo and Cape Town and has about 40 employees. Jampp plans to use new funding to expand operations in key markets and continue investing in R&D. The product focus is on conversion-driven, real-time bidding to optimize mobile user acquisition and re-engagement.