Brazilian VC Base Partners Closes Over $135 Million For Second Latin America-Focused Growth Fund, Chile’s Central Bank Cuts Benchmark Rate to 9-Year Low as Economy Weakens, Gympass’ Success Story and Plans for Expansion, and more from LatAm...

“The performance of the economy in the second quarter and its outlook point toward a longer-than-expected convergence of inflation to its target, which makes monetary stimulus more necessary. An expansion of said stimulus may be required and will be evaluated in the next meetings” (Bloomberg). 

“After a surprise 50 basis point cut back in June, policy makers left the key rate unchanged in July as they gathered more information about the global economy and waited to see how other central banks would react to a slowdown” (Bloomberg). 

“The post-meeting statement has a clear dovish bias that points to additional interest-rate cuts if economic growth and domestic demand remain weak. Policy makers are poised to maintain interest rates in the near term and wait for more information before making any additional changes, but lingering external headwinds and eroding household demand are likely to increase expectations for more rate cuts.”

“At one stage, I was paying memberships at three different gyms at the same time but I only rarely managed to use them. Then I thought of a monthly fee that would give me access to any gym, regardless of where I was - so that I could keep up a physical activity routine, even with all the changes at work. What we found out later was that companies would be willing to invest to [incentivize staff to exercise] by accessing flexibility at attractive prices, which makes employees who have never done physical activity start doing it,” he told Forbes.

“People always talk about the chicken-egg [dilemma], but in our case we have the egg, the chicken and the perch, because we’re a three-sided business that needs to focus on corporate HR departments, gyms and users. That requires a rather large investment,” Carvalho notes. 

“Having a fund like SoftBank by our side is a significant seal of approval, a confirmation that we are on the right track. Having a leader in global technology investment also works as a validation for people who might want to come to Gympass.”

“We are at the beginning of a relevant technology development cycle not only in Brazil, but in Latin America. We see angel investors to more advanced stage funds all entering the market, exit deals and IPOs of companies providing good returns to their investors. There has never been such a good moment to invest in Brazil. All parts of the ecosystem are now there and the speed of growth will only increase from now on,” he said.

“To help address this issue, Congress is currently debating a tax reform, which is expected to be approved in the Lower House by year-end and in the Senate by next year. This is a high-stakes reform and its chief aim is to simplify and rationalise the tax code, merging several taxes into a single VAT tax.”

“The much-anticipated “cadastro positivo” (“positive registry”), which paved the way for the arrival of US-style credit bureaus is another landmark piece of legislation that was just approved and is about to become reality. Up until now, only delinquency registries (or “bad credit” bureaus) were allowed in Brazil. The new regime should help reduce delinquency and the spread for good borrowers.”

“There’s growing awareness over these issues, but there’s still a lot of discrimination in the work culture in Mexico” (Bloomberg). 

 “Miami is fascinating because of its glitzy improbability… [The city] is somehow an emerging hub for Latin America without actually being in Latin America. From a capital of white collar crime in the 1980s, it wrested for itself an image as one of the world’s great, growing immigrant cities.”

“Part of our secret sauce is that we’re a city built by immigrants. Miami is a very young city, But we have the grit and resiliency of those people. Miami is a startup in and of itself. If you’re willing to roll up your sleeves, you can make it here.” 

 “CBInsights — they think the only thing happening is in São Paulo. If you look at Pitchbook’s publications, Miami doesn’t get the attention it deserves.  Miami has benefitted from the booms and busts of Latin America and also the political turmoil,” he said.

“More than venture-backed mega-funding and large scale exits, what makes a city like Miami a tech hub is if it has a thriving innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem that draws on the support and collaboration of all the tentpoles: from government to higher-ed, startups to investors, corporate enterprises to media.” 

“I see early signs of momentum for Colombia being a talent magnet both regionally and globally,” Ng said.

“We are able to share our AI ecosystem and Silicon Valley know-how with Medellín. We’re equally thrilled for our Silicon Valley team to be learning from the Medellín community. Local knowledge and innovation shared with a global community is what will catapult the technology forward,” he said in an announcement.