July stood out for how much activity happened outside Brazil and Mexico. While Mexico kept dominating the dollar headlines, the most interesting megarounds came from Colombia, Venezuela, and El Salvador. Add a strong batch of Q2 data and a few Mexican banking milestones, and there’s plenty to unpack.
For those of you who recently joined the Newsletter: the first Friday of each month I publish the Monthly Download for the previous month, where I share my highlights and use them as an excuse to discuss a couple of topics.
In this edition:
Quarterly Trends
The Megarounds (outside of Brazil and Mexico)
Big News of the Month
Coffee Break
I’ve developed a habit of spending some time reviewing the Quarterly Latam Overview Crunchbase publishes. It is a succinct and powerful summary, which allows us to keep a pulse on the region. As I’ve done in the past, here are the 3 things that stood out:
I’ve said before I was hesitant on whether Mexico could continue leading Latam in dollars fundraised. Well, Mexico did it again and made the margin bigger.
As I’ve highlighted before, the devil is in the details, and two deals were key this quarter: Clip’s $500M USD raise and Plata’s $405M USD raise. If global investors continue to find Mexico’s growth market attractive, we may have to get used to this new regional leadership trend.
While there was a minor improvement Q2 vs Q1 ($366M vs $354M USD), this is the second worst quarter in this cohort since 2023, only slightly better than last quarter. Mexico is an interesting case study, as the country raised $944M USD this quarter, but considering the Clip and Plata deals, that only leaves $39M USD for the rest.
This is not a minor issue, and understanding the drivers behind this trend could be very telling. Two main options come to mind:
A. Many funds in Mexico are out of the market, leaving entrepreneurs struggling to find active early-stage investors.
B. The talent pool is choosing not to start new companies, possibly finding better opportunities inside larger companies, likely the same ones fundraising massive rounds.
If the answer is option B, several funds expected to close in the near future will find themselves in a complicated position. Most of these cover Spanish-speaking Latam, and Mexico should be their largest market. Worth tracking closely.
This is a topic I recently deep-dived into, as a portion of Latam talent is deciding to relocate to SF to build companies with a US or global outset. I’ll highlight my main conclusion from a couple of months ago: “the SF pilgrimage is real, the satisfaction is high among those who go, and the right next question is what ‘worth it’ actually means in practice.”
Interestingly enough, the migration to SF may be one of the drivers pushing Angel-Seed and Early-Stage numbers down in the region. While that can be framed as a positive for founders, it raises the bar for Latam managers competing for the same rounds.
Colombia, Venezuela and El Salvador leading the way for the region is awesome. Too much Mexico and Brazil lately, so happy to see startups in these countries land massive deals. Let’s take a quick look. Spoiler: don’t be surprised if it’s all fintech deals.
Cashea, the Venezuela-based provider of a buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) fintech platform, announced it raised $100M in funding, through a combination of equity and debt investments the company recently structured. For a country that has been through so much recently, including the devastating earthquake that hit just weeks ago, this announcement was a genuine bright spot.
The Colombian BNPL fintech Addi raised an $85M Series D round led by Citius and BTG Pactual (seems like this was also a big month for BNPL in the region). Addi will use the Series D proceeds to continue growing the credit platform, strengthen technology infrastructure, and expand the portfolio of financial products for consumers and merchants across Colombia.
Colombian proptech Duppla raised $60M in a mix of debt and equity. The round was led by a fund managed by Patria Investments. The new capital will increase Duppla’s financing capacity, expand its residential investment platform, and support its expansion across Colombia, starting with Medellín.
The Salvadoran fintech secured $53M through a warehouse facility and a Seed round. Abaco will use the funds to originate more than $350M in loans over the next 24 months, serve more than 10,000 SMEs, and expand operations in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Costa Rica.
Mexico’s headlines were dominated by a handful of debt-heavy deals worth highlighting:
1. Aviva raises $18M Series A led by Valor Capital. The Mexican fintech provides loans ranging from $100 to $1,000 to individuals and small businesses. Customers apply through physical kiosks using an AI-powered bot over video calls.
2. Nexu secured a $143M credit line from HSBC. The company provides AI-powered automotive financing with a focus on consumers with limited credit histories. Nexu expects to finance more than 10,000 vehicles through its partner automakers.
3. Digitt Secures $50M financing facility. The company secured the financing facility from Victory Park Capital to expand its credit card refinancing platform for prime borrowers in Mexico, replacing high-interest debt with fixed-rate loans.
Also, the Plata and Nu rivalry is quietly becoming one of the most interesting stories in Latam fintech given recent developments.
Plata received authorization from Colombia’s financial regulator to begin operations as a financing company, marking its first international expansion beyond Mexico. The move into Colombia represents the first step in the Mexican fintech’s broader regional expansion strategy.
Nu received final authorization from Mexico’s CNBV to operate as a bank, completing its transition from a Sofipo seven years after entering the country. With 15M+ customers and $5.9B in deposits, the banking license will allow Nu to expand its product offering, including payroll accounts, as it deepens its long-term bet on Mexico.
House of Coffee (CDMX) - Fantastic coffee shop outside of the Condesa/Roma/Polanco area in Mexico City. This small shop in the southern part of the city has fantastic coffee and several matcha options. Definitely worth the visit if you happen to be in the area.
That’s it for the July 2026 download!
As always, feel free to drop your comments and share your own highlights.
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