Dígitro to expand to CentAm amid AI-fueled global push

Brazilian IT firm Dígitro Tecnologia will expand to Central America this year as part of an internationalization push.

The company’s plans were detailed during its annual sales conference on March 7-8 in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina state. Dígitro also vows to double its investment in AI this year to incorporate new modules and features into its offerings.

“The time is now to consolidate and boost our entire sales force to go further, conquering new customers in the national market and reaching Angola, El Salvador and Portugal,” said the head of market relations, Octávio Carradore.

Founded 45 years ago, the company is an integrator and solutions developer focused on the defense and public security, smart cities, and customer segments, holding contracts with the Brazilian government.

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Telefónica presented a new strategy for its innovation operations.

Wayra, which has been the company's main open innovation initiative, is pivoting “as a result of its state of maturity” and will now group all of Telefónica Movistar’s investment initiatives in startups under its brand, the telco said in a statement.

The company has been betting on open innovation for more than 15 years.

It claims to have invested in more than 1,100 startups globally during this period. Of the total, 530 remain active in its portfolio and 190 refer to exits but are working with the company.

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Colombian fintech Yuno raised US$25mn in a series A round to accelerate expansion in North and South America, with potential entries into Asia, Europe and Africa.

The new capital allocation came from a consortium of investors, including DST Global Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Kaszek Ventures and Monashees.

The new investment adds to the US$10mn the payments orchestration platform collected in a seed round in 2022 and values the company at around US$150mn. Yuno competes with players such as Israel’s Nuvei and US firm Adyen.

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Israeli fintech and e-commerce solutions developer Nayax is entering Latin America with the acquisition of Brazil’s VMtecnologia, a tech provider for the automated self-service industry.

The purchase price was 110mn reais (US$22.3mn) and the transaction is slated for completion in Q2.

“By entering the Latin American market with a strong and immediate market presence, Nayax is poised to leverage VMtecnologia’s established footprint, serving over 2,400 retailers in diverse industries across all 27 states in Brazil and more than 466 cities,” Nayax said in a release.

With the expansion, Nayax said it will serve over 18,300 additional points of sale, including vending machines, micro markets, autonomous laundromats and the electronic entertainment sectors.

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Brazilian social impact fintech Trampay raised 1.25mn reais in a seed round led by Potencia Ventures.

Closed at the end of 2023, the investment was only now made public by the company.

Trampay reports 20,000 registered users and claims to have processed 850,000 payment transactions from logistics operators to delivery workers since 2020, moving around 200mn reais in the period.

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February saw 59 rounds of investments worth US$412mn in Latin American startups, with seed rounds and fintechs leading the pack, according to a monthly report by the Distrito startups platform.

These are up from 44 deals and US$165mn in February 2023, which indicates venture capital could be regaining steam for the segment. 

The value is the highest since October 2023, when the region received US$451mn in investments and which was the peak last year, according to Distrito. 

When compared to the previous month, February saw a reduction in the number of rounds, from 63 to 59.

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The Brazilian senate's economic affairs committee approved changes to the country’s legal startups framework with the aim of boosting investments.

Complementary bill (PLP) 252/2023 amends 2021 legislation to allow amounts invested in startups to be converted into share capital, that is into an equity stake in the company.

The text now goes to the plenary for voting.