Dealmaking transactions slide in Peru, Colombia in H1

Peru and Colombia recorded declines in the number of business transactions (M&As, venture capital, private equity and asset acquisition operations) in H1, new regional figures broken down by TTR Data show.

In Peru, transactions fell by over 12% year-over-year, to 58, whereas the drop in Colombia was 25.4%, to 117. 

Declared transaction value grew in Peru, however, driven by mining and metals deals, hitting US$3.66bn, two times more on an annual basis. In Colombia, the aggregated value of transactions fell 38.6%, to US$2.46bn.

The internet, software and IT services sector led in Colombia, with 29 deals, followed by commercial and professional support services, with 18 deals.

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Peruvian startup Tumi Robotics received 75mn Chilean pesos (US$90,000) from Startup Chile’s "Growth Generation 6″ program.

Tumi designs digital solutions to provide greater safety in work environments for industries such as mining and energy.

The startup program was created by Chile to attract global entrepreneurs to the country and develop their solutions. To this end, a financial subsidy is provided, as well as access to the acceleration program and its network of partners.

With the resources, Tumi is expected to launch operations in Chile. The startup is also reportedly seeking to raise US$2mn in a VC financing round.

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India’s Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) cut the ribbon on a multilingual customer experience (CX) hub in Barranquilla, Colombia, with plans to onboard over 300 employees to the site by year-end.

The center is supporting clients with English, Spanish and Portuguese CX requirements.

HGS sees the hub as a catalyst to scale its customer experience capabilities significantly for its expanding multilingual client base.

“Colombia has been growing steadily as an attractive nearshore destination for CX services, led by many advantages including the presence of high-quality multilingual talent, multiple universities, and time zone alignment to North America markets,” the company said in a statement. Investment figures were not disclosed.

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Israeli CX solutions provider Nice tapped Chile’s Entel as partner and distributor of its solutions in the Southern Cone, notably Chile and Peru.

The alliance builds on Entel being a client of CXone, Nice's signature cloud-based CX solution that has more than 1mn users worldwide.

“Entel has a strong presence in the healthcare, education and retail segments, among others, and adds capillarity to our business in the region,” Latin America director of channels Marcia Golfetti said in a release.

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Brazil’s antitrust regulator Cade approved the 3bn-euro (US$3.3bn) acquisition of Luxembourg’s Majorel by France’s Teleperformance, first announced in April.

Teleperformance offers business process outsourcing (BPO) and, more recently, IT consulting services in different markets in the Americas, Africa, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. It posted revenues of “over 75mn reais [US$15.7mn] in Brazil in 2022,” according to a Cade statement.

Majorel operates in the same regions and offers BPO, conversational AI, banking mobility services, process automation and robotic process automation solutions. Majorel's Brazil revenues surpassed 750mn reais last year.

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The VC arm of Brazilian petchem giant Braskem, Oxygea, hired Touchdown Ventures to manage its corporate venture capital fund.

Oxygea has US$150mn to invest in startups, focusing on carbon neutrality, circular economy, renewable energy, new materials and digital transformation.

The amount involves US$100mn for venture capital with "international mandate" and US$50mn for “venture building and acceleration,” according to a statement.

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Educational platform Preply raised further US$70mn as part of a series C round and will invest in AI tools to improve student learning and optimize performance of 35,000 tutors and teachers linked to the platform.

The round was led by Horizon Capital with participation from Reach Capital, Hoxton Ventures and other investors.

With the amount, the edtech company, which operates in Brazil and other Latin American countries, among other markets, wrapped up its series C fundraising, having acquired US$120mn.

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Mexican online grocery Jüsto is creating a platform, Aceladora Jüsto, to support micro, small and medium-sized suppliers in Latin America.

The goal is to provide tools for professionalization and growth within and outside the firm's portfolio, according to a press release. 

Aceleradora Jüsto will offer training and webinars with topics such as retail landscape, food safety, innovation, digital marketing and economic perspectives, it said.