2016-2019

RESEARCH STUDY OF THE PRIVATE EQUITY,

VENTURE CAPITAL AND SEED
CAPITAL INDUSTRY IN ARGENTINA

Sponsored by:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
03 Introduction

04 Purpose of the Report and Conclusions

06 Methodology

07 About ARCAP/EY/OLFE

08 Overview of Private Equity (PE/VC/SEED) in Argentina

10 Seed Capital

12 Venture Capital

14 Private Equity

15 Corporate Venture Capital

17 Startups and Fund Managers: Geographical Distribution

19 Startups: a Gender Approach

21 Main Operations in 2019

27 Acknowledgement

28 About our Sponsor

INTRODUCTION
For the fourth consecutive year, Argentina has exceeded the amount of Private Investments
(Private Equity + Venture Capital) of the previous year. Throughout this report we will go into
detail about the rounds and investments that explain this phenomenon, both in Private Equity
and Venture Capital.

For the particular case of Venture Capital, the phenomenon is similar to what happens in Latin
America. Larger annual amounts were invested year after year from 2016 to 2019. Special
rounds were identified that explain largely the amount invested in the year. At the same time,
the number of transactions each year exceeds those in the previous one, which indicates
that despite the adverse situation of recent years, the Argentine ecosystem is maturing and
consolidating.

Investments in Latin America, measured in terms of the amount allocated to Venture Capital,
represent less than 1% of the total investment in the world. In turn, Argentina represents,
depending on the year under consideration, between 4% and 6% of the amount invested in our
region. This means that although Argentina has grown steadily and unquestionably over the
last 4 years, we are still a very small ecosystem that in 2018 represented 0.06% of the amount
invested in Venture Capital in the world.

Far from discouraging, this scenario should represent a challenge: there is a great opportunity
that we can seize and there is room for further growth.

IDEA
ARCAP's objective is to improve the Private Equity, Venture Capital and Seed Capital industry,
increasing the amount of productive transactions and the generation of high quality jobs in
Argentina. Our country needs to diversify its productive matrix and Venture Capital can be
key to achieving this. Companies invested by Venture Capital create more jobs, produce more
exports, tend to formalize their businesses, attract investments from abroad, and grow faster,
generating an impact on the entire economy.

The Entrepreneurship Law and the Fiduciary Fund for Entrepreneurial Capital
Development (“FONDCE” after its Spanish acronym) together with the Knowledge-
Economy Promotional Regime are examples of the joint work that civil society and the
National State can achieve by working together. Argentina needs to look at the long term
under this premise, since although the immediate situation is the focus of our attention,
there are other economies in the region and the world that year after year become more
competitive, efficient, and innovative through the development and promotion of dynamic
startups that use Venture Capital as a source of financing.

In the not too distant future, the wealth of nations will be measured not by the natural
resources they possess but by the knowledge they can generate. Our country has enormous
potential that we must not waste. ARCAP will make the greatest effort to contribute
to the development of the Argentina of the future.

Diego Gonzalez Bravo

President of ARCAP
February, 2020

03
04

PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

AND CONCLUSIONS
This Study of the Private Investments Industry in Argentina is a tool that aims at understanding
the evolution of the industry, and providing a clear overview of the activity of Fund Managers each year.
The objective is to provide valuable information that will support the decision making process
of current and potential investors.

The figures that will be indicated in this report reflect that the Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Seed
Capital industries maintain a growing trend that is consolidating year after year. This tendency generates a
dynamization of the economy through the creation of jobs, its formalization, financial inclusion, the increase
of exports, the resolution of problems linked to human development, and the promotion of innovation,
which is a constitutive characteristic of the ecosystem.

A new aspect is the inclusion in this report of the geographical distribution of the startups that received
Venture Capital financing in 2019, as well as the location of the Private Investments Fund Managers currently
operating in Argentina. Having an overview of these variables is the first step in working towards building an
increasingly federal and inclusive ecosystem.

On the other hand, another highlight is that ARCAP started to collect gender indicators in order to reflect the
current situation and start working towards a more diverse industry.
THE MAIN CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM
THIS REPORT FOR THE YEAR 2019 ARE AS FOLLOWS:
4 There were 92 Private Investments transactions (sum of Private Equity, Venture Capital and Seed Capital) in the
amount of USD 1,128.3 million. Of this amount, USD 725 million correspond to Private Equity (PE), USD 389.1
million to Venture Capital (VC) and USD 14.2 million to Seed Capital (Seed).

4 Of the total of 92 transactions in Private Investments, 74% correspond to Seed Capital, 25% to 05
Venture Capital and 1% to Private Equity (PE).

4 In the three stages of investment there was an increase over the previous year: the increase in Seed Capital
was 13.3% in the number of transactions and 24.1% in the amount invested and for Venture Capital the increase
was 35.3% in the number of transactions and 153.3% in the amount invested. In Private Equity (PE), although
there was only one transaction compared to the 4 identified the previous year, the amount invested
in that sector increased by 66.7%.

4 The verticals with the highest number of transactions in Venture Capital were Fintech (23.5%), Biotech (17.7%),
Enterprise, Software & Services (17.7%) and AgTech (11.8%).

4 The verticals in which there were a greater number of transactions in Seed Capital were Biotech (22%),
Enterprise, Software & Services (20.3%), Commerce (15.3%), Fintech (10.2%) and AgTech (8.5%).

4 In Private Equity (PE), a single transaction was recorded in 2019 for a payment service company.

4 Most of the startups that received financing from Venture Capital (VC and Seed Capital) in 2019 are located in
the City of Buenos Aires and the Province of Buenos Aires (69.7%). The other provinces that follow in terms of the
presence of startups are Mendoza and Santa Fe with 10.5% each, Córdoba with 7.9% and Río Negro with 1.3%.

4 Most of the Fund Managers (77.6%) are also located in the City of Buenos Aires and in the
Province of Buenos Aires. Santa Fé and Córdoba each concentrate 8.2% of the Managers surveyed.

4 17.3% of the startups that received Venture Capital financing in 2019 have at least one female founder.
Of the total number of founders surveyed, 91.3% are men and 8.7% are women.

4 The percentage of these Seed and VC startups that received investment in 2019 that have a female CEO is 10.7%.

4 The Fund Managers active as of December 2019 who have a woman in a decision-making position make up
20% of the total surveyed.
 METHODOLOGY
During the months of December 2019 and January 2020, the Argentine Association of Private Equity, Venture
Capital and Seed Capital (ARCAP, after its Spanish acronym), together with EY Argentina and the Latin
American Observatory of Financing for Entrepreneurs (OLFE, after its Spanish acronym), sent out a survey
requesting information on the capital commitments and investments made by Fund Managers during the second
half of 2019 in order to complete the information collected for the first half of the year.
06
After the information collection period, the data were processed and the results consolidated are reflected in
this document.

Additionally, complementary information to that obtained in the survey was used, which was provided by
LAVCA (The Association of Private Capital Investment in Latin America), OLFE and obtained through public
sources. Thanks to these complementary sources of information, transactions were identified in which no local or
global management firms with presence in Argentina have participated (members and non-members of ARCAP).
Integrating these sources of information allows for a more complete picture of the investment activity in
Argentina in the period under analysis.

For the geographical identification of startups, a database was created and completed with data extracted from
the companies' websites and/or consulted directly with the entrepreneurs or the Fund Manager who participated
in the financing round, as appropriate.

For gender indicators, the same procedure was followed, but the sample of startups is more limited since it was
not possible to access information on all the invested projects in the base.

NOTE: Both the gender and geographic surveys show fewer startups than those surveyed in the entire study
because there are cases of companies that had two rounds in the year, because there are companies that
were reported by more than one manager and because there are managers who did not report the name of the
invested startups and were therefore left out of the gender and geographic statistics.
 ABOUT
The Argentine Association of Private Equity, Venture Capital
and Seed Capital (ARCAP) is a non-profit organization whose objective is to
promote the development of the Private Equity Industry in Argentina.

EY is a global leader of audit, tax, transaction advisory and

07
advisory professional services.

The Latin American Observatory for Financing Entrepreneurs

(OLFE, by its Spanish acronym) is a joint initiative of IAE Business School
and the School of Business Sciences at Universidad Austral.
 OVERVIEW OF PRIVATE INVESTMENTS
(PE/VC/SEED) IN ARGENTINA
Although Argentina is still far from the levels of the most developed economies,
there is a growing trend in terms of volume of transactions and amounts involved that has
remained constant since 2016. In addition to the figures shown below, a parameter that
reflects this growth at the national level is the amount invested in Private Investments
08
(Private Equity, Venture Capital and Seed Capital) in relation to the country's GDP.

FIGURE I / EVOLUTION IN ARGENTINA. PI/GDP

2016 2017 2018

0.039% 0,077% 0.084% Source: ARCAP

In recent years, more than 280 projects have been financed in Argentina through the investment of
Venture Capital and Seed Capital Fund Managers: 59 in 2016, 54 in 2017, 77 in 2018 and 91 in 2019.

In connection with the amounts invested, investments in Argentinean startups were identified
for USD 37.4 million in 2016, USD 134.2 million in 2017, USD 165 million in 2018 and USD 403.3 million in 2019.
This means almost USD 740 million in only 4 years.

In Private Equity, 15 transactions were detected from 2016 to 2019 for a total amount of USD 1,652 million.

FIGURE II / PRIVATE INVESTMENTS (PE/VC/SEED): NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS IN ARGENTINA

100

80

60

40 81 92
62 61

20

0 Source:: ARCAP
2016 2017 2018 2019

We can see a sustained growth from 2017 in the number of transactions. Between 2017 and 2018,
the increase was 32.7% and between 2018 and 2019, the increase was 13.6%.

Of the total number of transactions in the period analyzed in this report, 1% was Private Equity (PE),
25% was Venture Capital (VC) and 74% was Seed Capital (Seed).
 FIGURE III / AMOUNT OF PRIVATE INVESTMENTS (PE/VC/SEED) IN ARGENTINA - USD MILLION

1250

1000

750
1.128,28
500
599,95 09
250 443,32
220,48

0 Source: ARCAP
2016 2017 2018 2019

Just as there is a growing trend in the number of transactions, the amount invested also increased
steadily over the last four years: it doubled from 2016 to 2017 and more than doubled between 2018
and 2019. When looking at the latter increase, it should be considered that in the first half of 2019
there was a Private Equity (PE) transaction of USD 725 million that represented 64.3%
of all investments in the period.
 SEED
CAPITAL
The sources of seed financing in Argentina cover a variety of agents,
including incubators and accelerators, early-stage fund managers
(VC seed funds) and corporations.

10
FIGURE IV / NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS IN ARGENTINA - SEED CAPITAL

100

80

60

40
60 68
51 41
20

0 Source: ARCAP
2016 2017 2018 2019

From 2017, there is an increasing trend in the number of transactions in Seed Capital. Between 2017 and 2018,
the number of transactions increased by 46% and between 2018 and 2019, the increase was 13.3%.

FIGURE V / AMOUNT OF TRANSACTIONS IN ARGENTINA - USD MILLION - SEED CAPITAL

15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7 14,2
6
11,4
5
9,5
4 7,6
3
2
1
0 Source: ARCAP
2016 2017 2018 2019

Just as an increase in the number of transactions was detected, there is also an increase in the amount
of transactions that remains constant since 2017. From 2017 to 2018, this increase was 50% and
from 2018 to 2019, it was 25%.
 FIGURE VI / AVERAGE TRANSACTION AMOUNTS - USD MILLION - SEED CAPITAL

0,25

0,20

0,15 11

0,21
0,10 0,19 0,19 0,19

0,5

0 Source:: ARCAP
2016 2017 2018 2019

The average amount, which had remained constant over the last three years, registered a 10.3%
increase in 2019, reaching USD 208,000 per transaction.

FIGURE VII / VERTICAL INVESTMENT IN SEED CAPITAL

EdTech

6,8 %
Commerce

15,3 % Biotech

22,0 %
HealthTech

3,4 %
Smartcity

5,1 %

Fintech

10,2 %

AgTech
Enterprise Software
8,5 %
20,3 %

Others

8,5 %
 VENTURE
CAPITAL
The industry of Venture Capital, as well as Private Investments in general, has had
a sustained growth in Argentina. This trend is reflected in the analysis of the
investment destined to this sector, the sum of Seed Capital and Venture Capital,
as a percentage of the Argentine GDP.

12

2016 2017 2018

0.007% 0,021% 0.032% Source: ARCAP

FIGURE VIII / NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS IN ARGENTINA - VENTURE CAPITAL

25

20

15

23
10
17
13

5
8

0 Source: ARCAP
2016 2017 2018 2019

The number of transactions in Venture Capital has increased steadily since 2016. In 2019,
with respect to the previous year, there was an increase of 35.3%, which was greater than the increase
of 30.8% that had been detected between 2017 and 2018.
 GRÁFICO IX / AMOUNT OF TRANSACTIONS IN ARGENTINA -
USD MILLION - VENTURE CAPITAL
400

350

250

300

150 389,2
13
200

100 153,6
126,6
50 27,9
0 Source: ARCAP
2016 2017 2018 2019

The percentage increase in the amount invested is much greater than the percentage increase in the number
of transactions, reflecting the fact that the rounds are greater in terms of money invested. From 2018 to 2019,
there was an increase of 153.3% in the amount invested in Venture Capital. This large increase contrasts
with the 21.3% difference that had occurred between 2017 and 2018.

There are transactions ranging from USD 50,000 that have been part of a Venture Capital round to USD 150
million investments. This wide range is the reason why a graph of the average amount of the transactions
made in the period under analysis was not included.

FIGURE X / VERTICAL INVESTMENT IN VENTURE CAPITAL

Commerce

5,9 %

HealthTech

5,9 % Biotech

Smartcity 17,6 %

5,9 %
Enterprise Software

17,6 %
Fintech
Others
23,5 %
11,8 %

AgTech

11,8 %
 PRIVATE
EQUITY
FIGURE XI / NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS IN ARGENTINA - PRIVATE EQUITY
8

14

4
7

2 4
3

1
Source: ARCAP
0
2016 2017 2018 2019

While the number of transactions in Private Equity fell from 4 to 1 in 2019 compared to 2018,
the single transaction in 2019 was more than double the sum of the three transactions
from the previous year.

FIGURE XII / AMOUNT OF TRANSACTIONS IN ARGENTINA - USD MILLION - PRIVATE EQUITY

800

600

400 725

435
200
309

183
Source: ARCAP
0
2016 2017 2018 2019

The number of transactions in Private Equity shows more fluctuations over the years than those
in Seed Capital and Venture Capital, so it is not possible to identify a trend.

Although, as shown in the Figure above, the amount of transactions in Private Equity varied relatively little
over the last 4 years, there is an increasing trend in the amounts invested. From 2018 to 2019, the number
of transactions decreased from 4 to 1, but the amount invested increased by 66.7%.
 CORPORATE VENTURE
CAPITAL (CVC)
Corporate Venture Capital covers all funds managed by companies that invest in rounds of Venture Capital and Seed Capital.
In 2019, of the 13 operations carried out by this type of corporate vehicle, 11 were Venture Capital and 2 were Seed Capital.
The transactions and investment amounts of Corporate Venture Capital are part of the Venture Capital.
They are broken down to show the evolution of this sub-sector.
15

FIGURE XIII / NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS IN ARGENTINA - CORPORATE VENTURE CAPITAL

20

15

10 20

13
5 9
8

0 Source: ARCAP
2016 2017 2018 2019

Although there was an increase in the number of total transactions of Venture Capital, a decrease of 35% was
detected in the transactions of this type carried out by Corporate Venture Capital.

FIGURE XVI/ AMOUNT OF TRANSACTIONS IN ARGENTINA -

USD MILLION - CORPORATE VENTURE CAPITAL
6

5,1
2

2,3 2,1
1
1,5

0 Source: ARCAP
2016 2017 2018 2019

The amount invested by Corporate Venture Capital Fund Managers decreased by 59.7% between 2018 and 2019,
so they also did not follow the upward trend of the amount invested in Venture Capital as a whole.
 FIGURE XVII/ CVC PARTICPATION IN THE OVERALL VENTURE CAPITAL
30%

25%

20%

16 15%
26%

10%
15,5%
14,8%
14,3%
5%

0% Source: ARCAP
2016 2017 2018 2019

Given the drop in the number of transactions and amounts invested by Corporate Venture Capital
Fund Managers, there was also a drop in their participation in the overall Venture Capital transactions.
In 2018, 1 out of 4 transactions in Argentina were made by this type of manager, but in 2019 as well as
in 2016 and 2017, their participation is closer to 1 out of 6 transactions.

The average amount of these managers' transactions was USD 157.8 thousand, 33% less than that
recorded in 2018 (USD 254.7 thousand).
FUND MANAGERS:
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

Chaco 17
2%
Tucumán

2%

Santa Fe

8,2 %

Córdoba

8,2 %

Mendoza

2% Buenos Aires City

and Province
of Buenos Aires

77,6 %

STARTUPS FINANCED
BY VENTURE CAPITAL IN 2019:
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION
 STARTUPS THAT RECEIVED INVESTMENT
IN 2019 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

18

Santa Fe

Córdoba 10,5 %

7,9 %

Mendoza Buenos Aires City

and Province
10,5 %
of Buenos Aires

69,7 %

Río Negro

1,3 %

STARTUPS FINANCED BY VENTURE

CAPITAL IN 2019:
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION
 19

STARTUPS:
A GENDER APPROACH
As of 2019, ARCAP began to collect gender-related information from both startups that were
financed, and Fund Managers. Making a diagnosis of the current situation allows us to have a starting
point to begin working for a more diverse ecosystem.

For this edition, a database of 75 startups that received investment from Venture Capital and Seed Fund
Managers during 2019 was compiled with the following data: composition of the founding team - number
of men and women - and gender of the CEO. This information is shown in the three Figures below.

The data shown in this section will continue to be collected by ARCAP from now on in order to achieve a
comparative overview year after year and thus be able to measure the gender progress of the ecosystem.

GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN STARTUPS THAT RECEIVED VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDING

(VC +SEED) IN 2019

FIGURE XVIII/ GENDER OF THE CEO OF THE STARTUPS THAT RECEIVED FUNDING

Women

10,7 %

Men

89,3 %

Source:: ARCAP
 FIGURE XIX/ GENDER OF THE ENTREPRENEURS
WHO RECEIVED FUNDING IN 2019

Women

8,7 %

20

Men

91,3 %

FIGURE XX/ COMPOSITION OF THE FOUNDING TEAM BY GENDER

At least one woman

17,3 %

Zero woman

82,7 %

The difference between these last two Figures is explained by the fact that, even in companies that
include some female founders, the teams are usually not 50/50. If we add up the members of all
the founding teams of the companies surveyed, there are 183 people, of which only 16 are women.
At the same time, of the 75 companies surveyed, 13 were co-founded by a woman. On the other hand,
of those 75, 73 were co-founded by men.
 MAIN OPERATIONS IN 2019
The criteria used to select the main operations is the amount involved in the round. In the case of Private Equity,
it's the single transaction of the period. In the case of Venture Capital (VC), the five largest rounds of the period
were taken, which together represent 96.6% of all investments made during the year.

ADVENT INTERNATIONAL ACQUIRES MAJORITY STAKE IN PRISMA MEDIOS DE PAGO

21
In turn, Prisma Medios de Pagos owns Banelco, Todo Pago,
Advent International, one of the largest and most
LasPos and Pago mis Cuentas.
experienced Private Equity fund managers in the world,
acquired 51% of Prisma Medios de Pago in January 2019.
The previous shareholders of Prisma Medios de Pago,
"Prisma Medios de Pago is the leader in a market with
a consortium of 14 local banks and Visa International, kept the
great growth potential driven by the growing introduction
remaining 49% of the participation. The transaction valued
of electronic payments in Argentina. We look forward to
100% of Prisma Medios de Pago at USD 1,420 million.
working with the management team and other
The investment of USD 725 million represents 64.3% of
shareholders to accelerate the company's development by
investments in 2019 in Private Investments (Private Equity +
investing in state-of-the-art products and services and
Venture Capital + Seed Capital).
exploring opportunities for international expansion," Juan
Pablo Zucchini, Managing Partner of Advent
The purchase of Prisma is the sixth transaction made by
International in São Paulo.
Advent International in Argentina and the eighth in the
global payments sector along with Monext (France),
Vantiv and Clearent/FieldEdge (United States), Worldpay
Advent International indicated this investment is
(Great Britain), Nets (Denmark), Nexi (Italy),
intended to support the growth of the business through
and Concardis (Germany).
innovation in product development and international
expansion.
 MAIN OPERATIONS
IN 2019
SOFTBANK GROUP'S FIRST INVESTMENT IN ARGENTINA

Argentinean fintech Ualá, founded in 2017 by Pierpaolo Ualá started its business with a prepaid Mastercard associated
Barbieri, which developed a prepaid card that can be to a personal account that already has 1.3 million issues in the last
accessed by anyone with their ID card and a mobile two years. In mid-2019, it added to its services a tool that gives
22 payment application, closed its series C round in November users the ability to allocate small amounts of money in pesos to
2019 for USD 150 million. This amount represents 38.6% low risk investment funds. You can invest from one peso
of the amount invested in Venture Capital (VC) during 2019. onwards through the mobile application.

The round was led by Tencent - a Chinese fund that The company with offices in Buenos Aires has 185
owns WeChat - with the particpation of Softbank Group, employees and plans to use part of the proceeds to
a member of ARCAP. Representatives from both firms expand its workforce.
will join Ualá's board of directors.
Since the enactment and regulation of the Knowledge-Economy
Promotional Regime, great possibilities have
opened up for the development of projects originating in
"We are very happy about our first investment Argentina. Examples such as Ualá motivate Argentinean
in Argentina. With this investment, the company will entrepreneurs, but at the same time they represent a
hire 400 people. Ualá is the best demonstration that, challenge in the development and training of human
regardless of the country's macro conditions, when you resources to enhance this growth. It is necessary that there are
have a AAA team to build an ambitious plan you can get new managers of Venture Capital that accompany the path
capital to grow," Andy Freyre, Managing Partner and needs of these dynamic projects.
at Softbank Group.
 MAIN OPERATIONS
IN 2019
SATELLOGIC: BRINGING SPACE TO EARTH
The Argentine company Satellogic, founded in 2010 by Satellogic launches small satellites for high-resolution
Emiliano Kargieman and dedicated to the aerospace industry, hyperspectral imaging and video capture. These satellites
closed in December a round for USD 50 million. are 80 centimeters high, weigh 40 kilos, orbit 500 kilometers
The transaction represented 12.9% of the total amount from the Earth and take 90 minutes to go around it. They are 23
invested in Venture Capital (VC) in Argentina in 2019. made of carbon, aluminum fiber, lenses and mirrors, among
The funds came from investors who already had stakes in other elements. They take about three weeks to assemble,
the company -Tencent from China and Pitanga and new have a life span of three years, and after that time they
investors - such as BID Lab and the Innovation Laboratory disintegrate in space.
of the Inter-American Development Bank. Two member
fund managers of ARCAP, Cygnus Capital and NXTP invested These devices are used to monitor everything that happens
in the company at an earlier stage. on Earth in real time. Some examples of the use of this
service include crop monitoring, irrigation control, estimation
of biophysical variables, detection of boats engaged in illegal
"We support Satellogic in its adventure to disrupt the fishing, control of oil fields and, even in the future, being able
geospatial analysis sector by covering the entire surface to warn drivers where they can find a free parking spot.
of the earth with a constellation of orbiting
microsatellites, basically because we trust in the Satellogic is working on building the planet's first scalable
ability of its founding team to pursue this dream observation platform that could re-map the entire Earth in
and execute it relentlessly. high frequency and high definition. The goal of building an
Today, after more than 6 years of becoming investors accurate and up-to-date picture of the Earth is to answer
in Satellogic, we can say that the conviction and questions such as: How will 9 billion people be provided with
determination of its CEO, Emiliano Kargierman, food? How can the energy needs of the next generations be
have been the two outstanding characteristics to met without depleting resources? How is the Earth changing?
make this company and its value proposal what it
is today". Marta Cruz, Managing Partner of NXTP. The company has 120 employees and offices in Buenos Aires,
Montevideo, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, San Francisco and Beijing.
The headquarters and its research and development team are
located in Buenos Aires. The assembly, integration and
testing (AIT) factory is located in Montevideo.
 MAIN OPERATIONS
IN 2019
TECHNISYS: BRINGING THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION CLOSER
TO THE BANKING SYSTEM
Technisys, an Argentine fintech company founded by Miguel Technisys offers a white-label digital banking software
Santos, Adrián Iglesias and Germán Pugliese Bassi, received platform, helping established banks transform themselves
24 an investment of US$50 million in its C round in 2019 and efficiently and digital banks launch quickly, envolved into
generated a valuation of between US$250 and 300 million for an ecosystem and differentiate themselves through
the company. The transaction represented 12.9% of the total customer experience. The platform is recognized
amount invested in Venture Capital (VC) in Argentina in among global leaders by analysts such as Gartner,
2019. Celent and Forrester.

The round was led by Riverwood Capital, a private equity The company has approximately 700 employees and offices
fund manager based in the United States. in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia,
Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, Costa Rica and
In 2014, two ARCAP member funds, Axia Ventures and Luxembourg, and collaborates on innovation with MIT and
Kaszek Ventures, invested in the company. Stanford.

Technisys has more than 50 clients, including ATB in

"Technisys was a success story of strategy innovation Canada, TAB Bank in USA, Banco Original Veloe and
for a software company with production in Argentina, Banese in Brazil, HSBC in 3 countries, Citibank in 5
Uruguay and Brazil for markets in LATAM, the United countries, Banco Falabella in 5 countries, Banco
States and Canada. We participated in the Series A Davivienda in 6 countries, Banco Macro, Patagonia,
round of USD 1 million in 2009. Then, in the Series B Itau, Bancor and BAPRO in Argentina.
of USD 13 million participated Intel Capital, Alta Ventures,
Kaszek Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst and Holdinvest.
Finally the Series C of USD 50 million was led by
Riverwood Capital. The investment in Technisys allowed
Axia Ventures investors a 15x return", Lisandro Bril,
Managing Partner from Axia Ventures.
 MAIN OPERATIONS
IN 2019
AUTH0: THE FIFTH ARGENTINEAN UNICORN

Auth0, the company that provides identity authentication In simple terms, the company is dedicated to facilitating the
services and was founded in 2013 by Eugenio Pace and Matias login process to various platforms to simplify the user
25
Wolonski, received USD 103 million in investment in May experience and, in turn, works on taking care of the gears
2019. This number represented 26.5% of the total amount behind that mechanism. Its main tasks are to verify identity,
invested in Venture Capital (VC) for the whole of 2019. improve security, and prevent password theft. Matías Wolonski
explained that they will use the money obtained in the last
Round E was led by Sapphire Ventures, a fund located in round to improve the product and the service end users receive.
Silicon Valley that gave the startup a valuation of USD 1.1
billion, making it the fifth Argentine unicorn. Today it shares The company has around seven thousand customers - among
this categorization with Despegar, OLX, Mercado Libre, and them Financial Times, Dow Jones and Bluetooth - and has
Globant. around 500 employees distributed in more than 30 countries,
60% of which work remotely from their homes, including
Two ARCAP member fund managers, Cygnus Capital and engineers and programmers.
NXTP Ventures, saw the potential of the company at its
inception and invested in its seed round in 2014. With offices in Bellevue (USA), Buenos Aires, London, Tokyo
and Sydney, the Argentine company already has a global
presence, making it a model for current and future generations
"We invested in Auth0 at an early stage because we saw of entrepreneurs and making Argentine talent visible to
three clear things that gave it a high growth potential: investors around the world.
a simple product (but with a complex and sophisticated
technology behind it); a gigantic market (everyone who
connects daily needs it), and a world class team with
deep knowledge of the technology, as well as an
innovative commercial approach (reaching target
customers through the developer community).
You never know which of your portfolio companies
will succeed, but Auth0 had these three key
components from the beginning". Diego Gonzalez Bravo,
Managing Partner of Cygnus Capital.
 MAIN OPERATIONS
IN 2019
AGROFY CLOSED THE LARGEST AGTECH INVESTMENT ROUND IN LATIN AMERICA

Agrofy, an agro market place founded in Santa Fe by In addition to being a marketplace, it has a news portal
Maximiliano Landrein and Alejandro Larosa, closed its related to the field that is updated daily and also offers
26
B round of investment for USD 23 million. The round was led the possibility of subscribing to a Newsletter relating
by SP Ventures of Brazil and two funds from Sillicon Valley, to this niche.
Fall Line Capital, Acre Capital, and Brasil Agro also participated.
GLOCAL and Cygnus Capital, members of ARCAP, Besides having demonstrated that it has developed a
participated in the round but also invested in the company successful business model, Agrofy is an example of
at an earlier stage. what is known as B2B (business to business). This type
of company is dedicated to providing products or services
not to the end consumer, but to other companies.
"We are very happy, not only for being early investors The emergence of this type of companies, financed through
in Agrofy, but because it is a great example of the Venture Capital funds, can mean a benefit for established
potential that Rosario in particular and the Region in SMEs that need technological services and solutions.
general has to generate more companies like this.

I've known Maximiliano and Alejandro for 16 years.

If there was a team that had the industry knowledge
and technological skills, it was them. The great bet was
on the team: they knew the idiosyncrasy of the industry
to perfection, but also had the technological skills
to scale a business model where generating traffic
and traction is extremely difficult" Bernardo Milesy,
Managing Partner of GLOCAL

The company has 200 employees, offices in Argentina,

Brazil and Uruguay, receives about 5 million visits per month
and has a list of more than 150,000 products in 15 categories.

The funds raised will be used primarily to deepen the

company's expansion in the region.

In early 2019, Agrofy arrived in Brazil and then in Uruguay,

Bolivia and Paraguay.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 27

ARCAP we wish to express special thanks to

Lorena Suárez, Venture Capital Manager of Grupo
Supervielle; to the research team of OLFE, Virginia Sarria
Allende, Carolina Dams, Ricardo Pasquini and Maria
Fernanda Figueroa; to Juan Palladino and Ignacio Carbó,
both members of the Transaction Advisory Services
team of EY Argentina; to Juan Savino, member of
the Advisory Board of ARCAP; to Maria Fernanda Andrés
and Francisco Rico of Aceleradora Litoral; to Julieta Vidal
of Wayra Argentina and to Juan Pablo Luna.
Everyone mentioned collaborated in the generation of
content and information of the Research Study.

ID EA
28
ABOUT OUR SPONSOR
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For more information, visit: https://startups.microsoft.com/en-us/

 
 29

ARCAP'S
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30

EY'S
DISCLAIMER
The information included in this publication is intended to provide only a general
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participants in the study. It should not be considered comprehensive or sufficient for
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