Roundup: Skyone makes acquisition, Ocyan hunts for startups, and more

Skyone buys São Paulo-based IT firm FWC

Brazilian cloud services provider Skyone bought São Paulo-based IT firm FWC and has other M&As planned for the year, the company said in a release.

The value of the deal was not disclosed, but market reports put the transaction at 15mn reais (US$2.9mn). 

FWC is focused on cloud management, with 50 employees, over 25,000 active users and 700 managed IT servers, said SkyOne.

The purchase comes after Skyone secured a 60mn-real financing round in February led by Venture Capital Bewater. That funding was deemed a Series B extension, as in 2021 the company had secured a 45mn-real Series B round led by Bradesco’s Inovabra Ventures.

Skyone claims to be “hungry” for M&As to grow in private cloud and targets annual revenues of 400mn-reais this year. The company provides services to 18,000 clients in 20 countries.

Ocyan hunts new 'problem-solving' startups

Oil and gas supplier firm Ocyan kicked off the fourth edition of its Ocyan Waves Challenge program for startup selection.

The initiative is focused on finding innovative solutions for some of Ocyan’s operational Achilles’ heels. For this edition, 10 challenges are being presented to companies, involving automation of tender analyses; data integration for health, safety and environment issues; and digital transformation for offshore permissions, among others.

Interested startups have until May 17 to access the program and register their proposals on the website.

Pátria’s SEK acquires PROOF

Pátria fund’s SEK (Security Ecosystem Knowledge) acquired Brazilian IT consultancy and security firm PROOF, an expert in managed detection and response (MDR) services, for an undisclosed sum.

With the acquisition, SEK said it reaches US$140mn in annual consolidated revenues. In an interview with BNamericas, SEK's founders had anticipated upcoming M&A moves.

SEK claims to have more than 400 professionals in Brazil and over 1,000 throughout Latin America, in addition to a base of 1,000 customers in the region.

SEK was launched by Pátria in 2023 with the goal of becoming a cybersecurity leader in Latin America. 

SRM Ventures chips in on open finance

SRM Asset’s VC arm SRM Ventures invested 40mn reais in the open finance platform EmpreX. The deal means SRM has 12 companies in its portfolio, it said in a release.

SRM Ventures intends to invest 300mn reais this year in up to nine more fintechs operating in innovative segments, ending the year with 22 investees. Overall, the VC's first fund has 500mn reais for investments.

EmpreX is focused on facilitating credit and loans to the middle class. With SRM’s investment, the fintech foresees 10-fold growth in its client base within 12 months.

Voke buys Suprisul for hardware leasing 

Brazil’s Voke, a provider of hardware and IT leasing services for corporates, wrapped up the acquisition of Suprisul, a specialist in equipment leasing for the corporate market mainly in the interior of São Paulo state.

This was Voke's fifth acquisition since 2019. With 27,000 assets, Suprisul is present in 228 cities in Brazil. Voke claims to be present in more than 4,300 cities, with more than 500,000 leasing assets.

Last year, Voke raised 300mn reais from a five-year private debt placement to fund its expansion plan, which includes portfolio diversification. That operation was led by Itaú BBA and coordinated by BTG Pactual.

This year, Voke issued 250mn reais in debentures.

Toku, Turbi, Tembici and goFlux raise funds

Chilean fintech Toku raised US$9.3mn in a Series A round led by Gradiente Ventures and followed by F-Prime Capital, Clocktower Group, Y Combinator, Wollef and FundersClub.

Around a third of the total will be used to expand in Brazil. Focused on multi-country payroll solutions, Turbi is also looking to ramp up operations in Mexico and its home market Chile.

Brazil’s car-rental app Turbi received 45.5mn reais in equity from Domo.vc with participation from Reag Investimentos and Carbyne Investimentos. The proceeds will be used in technology and commercial workforce growth.

In January, Turbi had already raised 150mn reais for the acquisition of vehicles for its business.

Bike-sharing app Tembici is receiving 84.6mn reais in financing from BNDES to be used in R&D, with a focus on innovation, between 2024 and 2026.

The company will allocate resources to improve its bikes and stations, as well as for app enhancements and cloud data processing, among others. This is the second financing Tembici has received from BNDES’ Mais Inovação program. The first, in February 2023, amounted to 160mn reais.

Capria Ventures led a US$6mn Series A round in goFlux. The round also saw participation from other investors, including SP Ventures.

Founded in 2018 by Rodrigo Gonçalves, Pedro Azevedo, Renato Castilho and Luis Martinez, goFlux provides a SaaS-enabled marketplace which digitizes freight exchange, mostly in the agribusiness.

N5 to hire and buy in Argentina

Buenos Aires-based financial services management platform N5 seeks to add hundreds of employees to its headcount to strengthen its global team. 

Among the available positions are senior development manager, data engineers and business analysts. 

The company, which has been financially-backed by JP Morgan and Citi, also plans to spend US$20mn on the acquisition of Argentine firms.

Argentine fintech chamber goes VC

The Bitcoin Argentina organization and the Argentine fintech chamber have teamed up to promote training of entrepreneurs from Argentina and Latin America. 

The agreement signed will also lead, in May, to the first venture capital program designed for early-stage crypto startups, to help them organize and scale up the formalization of their business until they raise capital.