The Latin American SaaS landscape is hustling and bustling, having seen more IPOs in the last 6 months than the previous 20 years combined. We are excited to be part of its history in the making as we bring SaaStock to Sao Paulo from May 11th to the 13th. We will gather 600 leading SaaS founders, executives and investors for three days packed with opportunities and rich exchange of knowledge to push the whole ecosystem forward.
In preparation for SaaStock LatAm, we looked at what the vast continent has brewed beyond these hefty IPOs, asked local friends such as Diego Gomes, CEO of Rock Content and Patrick Arippol, Managing Director of Early-Stage Investments in DGF Investimentos which are the companies they are really excited about and came up with a list of 29 Latin American SaaS superstars. Trailblazing through their home continent, venturing successfully onto the world stage or changing from on-premise software to SaaS, these companies could have a postal code in any SaaS hotspot in the world. We can’t wait to meet them.
Brazil
ContaAzul
ContaAzul is a business management platform for small businesses created in Brazil. Its focus is on helping companies handle financial routine and streamlining processes related to accounting, banks, stock, and electronic invoicing, among others. ContaAzul was acquired by the collaborative software platform Wabbi Software S.A. in 2018.
CEO: Vinicius Roveda Goncalves
Founded: 2011
Based in: Joinville, Brazil
Funding to Date: $37M from Tiger Global Management, Ribbit Capital, and others
RD Station
RD Station is an inbound marketing platform targeted at small and medium-size businesses. It helps companies launch and sustain a scalable customer growth machine and allows them to achieve better ROI on their digital ad spending. The platform also offers free educational resources to educate its customers. RD Station has grown rapidly since its inception and today serves more than 12,000 customers in 20 countries around the world.
CEO: Eric Santos
Founded: 2011
Based in: Florianópolis, Brazil
Funding to Date: $26.2M from Redpoint eventures, TPG Growth, DGF Investimentos and others
Olist
Olist is an e-commerce solution for sellers based in Curitiba, Brazil. Since its launch in 2015, it has attracted more than 4,500 retailers who use it as their central marketplace. The main target customers of Olist include online shops, retailers seeking better placement, importers and distributors, but the platform is also useful for end customers. Listing your online business on Olist is compared to having your shop in the largest department store in the region.
CEO: Tiago Dalvi
Founded: 2015
Based in: Curitiba, Brazil
Funding to Date: $8.8M from 500 Startups, Redpoint eventures, and others
Nibo
Nibo offers simple and efficient financial management. The Brazilian SaaS platform is targeted at small and medium-sized businesses and is serving more than 50,000 customers. Its annual Nibo Conference gathers the entrepreneurial accountants who are revolutionizing Brazil. Their common goal? Preventing the bankruptcy of more than 2 thousand companies a day.
CEO: Gabriel Gaspar
Founded: 2012
Based in: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Funding to Date: $6.6M from Vostok Emerging Finance, Valor Capital Group, and others
Omie
Omie is a management platform in the cloud for small and midsized companies, bringing together ERP, Financial Services, Entrepreneur Education and a vibrant Marketplace for vertical 3rd party solutions, all combined in an easy to use environment. Omie main goal is to bridge the efficiency gap in Brazilian SMB, helping customers to be more prosperous. Omie is the only SaaS company figuring among 100 fastest growing SMB in Brazil, according to Deloitte Consulting, ranking #3.
CEO: Marcelo Lombardo
Founded: 2013
Based in: São Paulo, Brazil
Funding to Date: $7.5M from Astella Investimentos, Spectra Investments and others
Vindi
Vindi is a PCI-certified online payment platform for recurring billing. It is a helpful tool for businesses based on a subscription model, as well as various other companies. Some of its top uses include financial services, e-commerce, marketing, education, and many more.
CEO: Rodrigo Dantas
Founded: 2013
Based in: São Paulo, Brazil
Funding to Date: $5.1M from Criatec 2, Bozano Investimentos, and others
Neoway
Neoway is a platform based on market intelligence and Big Data that helps companies with valuable insights for their growth. The company has created SIMM, an analytics platform containing rich market data. Neoway is targeted to serve a diverse range of industries, including transportation, consumer goods, construction, oil and gas, health and pharmaceuticals, technology, telecoms, banks, and insurance companies and brokers, among others. It has offices in Florianópolis, São Paulo, and New York City.
CEO: Jaime De Paula
Founded: 2002
Based in: Florianópolis, Brazil
Funding to Date: $45M from QMS Capital, Temasek Holdings, and others
Rock Content
Rock Content is the leading content marketing provider in the Brazilian market, serving thousands of businesses. Through a SaaS-enabled marketplace, the company allows customers to select their own mixture of services according to their specific needs. The content marketing projects are then handled via Rock Content’s automated SaaS platform. Writing exclusively about marketing and covering the needs of marketers, Rock Content has managed to grow its own blog to 2 million visitors each month making it the most successful blog about marketing in Spanish and Portuguese.
CEO: Diego Gomes
Founded: 2013
Based in: Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Funding to Date: $1.4M from e.Bricks Ventures, Abril Participações, and others
Superlógica
The Brazilian platform Superlógica is created with small service businesses in mind. It is a management system for companies based on recurrent services, such as condominiuns, subscription model businesses, real estate, course and education providers businesses, among others.
CEO: André Baldini
Founded: 2001
Based in: Campinas, Brazil
Funding to Date: N/A
Hi Platform
Hi Platform is Brazil’s largest customer relationship platform. It enables companies to build better connections with their customers. Based on artificial intelligence, Hi Platform allows businesses to learn what people say about them on social media, to automate customer service and to communicate with users in real time. The platform is targeted to serve e-commerce, real estate, insurance, consumer goods, education and financial fields.
CEO: Marcelo Pugliesi
Founded: 2017
Based in: São Paulo, Brazil
Funding to Date: Series A from CVENTURES
99
99, also known as 99Taxis, is a leading urban transport app coming from the Brazilian SaaS ecosystem. Its car booking services are available for both personal and business use, making it into the biggest Brazilian e-hailing app. Last year, 99 was acquired by Chinese superplayer Didi Chuxing, which is also one of its main investors. With this expansion, Didi is entering the Latin American market and increasing its reach to 1,000 cities around the world.
Founders: Ariel Lambrecht, Renato Freitas and Paulo Veras
Founded: 2012
Based in: São Paulo, Brazil
Funding to Date: $241.3M from Tiger Global Management, Didi Chuxing, Softbank Vision Fund, and others
Argentina
Tienda Nube
With Tienda Nube, entrepreneurs and small companies in Latin America get a complete toolbox for launching their online shops. The platform helps businesses set up, manage and popularize their digital business. Tienda Nube contributes towards the growing e-market in the region by allowing companies to cut down expenses and improve sales numbers. In 2018, the Argentinian SaaS business expanded to Mexico.
CEO: Santiago Sosa
Founded: 2011
Based in: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Funding to Date: $8.4M from Elevar Equity, Google Launchpad Accelerator, NXTP Labs, and others
Aivo
Aivo offers Artificial Intelligence solutions for customer service, so that businesses can provide their clients with outstanding experiences. Its core product is AgentBot, which is an automated platform for omnichannel customer support. Sony, AIG, Visa, Mastercard, GM, LG, Telefónica are just some of Aivo’s current users. It is the most used option for virtual assistance in Latin America. Aivo’s focus is on fields like fintech, ecommerce, telecom, and utilities.
CEO: Martin Sebastían Frascaroli
Founded: 2012
Based in: Cordoba, Argentina
Funding to Date: $1.9M from a seed round
Colppy
Colppy is an online accounting and administration software for small businesses in Latin America. The tool supports multi-currency billing and electronic invoicing. With Colppy, businesses can also work more effectively with their banks and accountants. In 2018, the company was acquired by Nubox, the leader in small business accounting software in the region.
CEO: Juan Onetto
Founded: 2012
Based in: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Funding to Date: $300,000 from Velum Ventures, and others
Wisboo
Wisboo is a one-stop-shop solution for businesses in the education field. It allows the easy creation of branded online academies. With the help of Wisboo, education providers can set up and handle online courses. The integrated platform enables easy scaling and the complete set of tools for launching an online training center.
CEO: Eze Carlsson
Founded: 2015
Based in: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Funding to Date: $505,000 from a seed round
Mexico
Runa HR
Runa is an HR and payroll management system targeted at the Latin American market, founded by the Stanford alumna Courtney McColgan. The Mexico-based SaaS startup offers simple cloud-based software for handling employee payments, benefits, and data. Runa is targeted at small and medium companies and is adapted to meet all their HR and payroll needs.
CEO: Courtney McColgan
Founded: 2017
Based in: Polanco, Mexico
Funding to Date: Seed round from Y Combinator and others
Chile
Ipsum
Ipsum is the creator of ProPlanner, an online platform for managing engineering and construction projects. The platform is based on Lean Construction methodologies and provides a collaborative ecosystem for engineers and construction specialists. Ipsum’s solution connects all stakeholders involved in projects, thus improving workflows and optimizing processes.
CEO: Franco Giaquinto
Founded: 2014
Based in: Santiago, Chile
Funding to Date: $1.1M from Cemex Ventures, Manutara Ventures, Wayra, and others
Airnguru
Airnguru provides a pricing intelligence technology for airlines. It presents a new class of fare management based on SaaS and using Big Data. With Airnguru, airline companies can boost their profits and decrease the necessary time-to-market. This is possible through price optimization and reduction of fare filing mistakes.
CEO: Sergio Mendoza
Founded: 2015
Based in: Santiago, Chile
Funding to Date: $2.9M from pre-seed and seed rounds
Beetrack
Beetrack is a route planning software that enables real-time management and monitoring of fleets and packages. The platform helps logistics companies in their daily operations. It allows them to optimize delivery plans and timelines by feeding them with data to improve decision-making. Beetrack also provides real-time monitoring of deliveries. Some of its customers include Coca Cola, Komatsu, and Ripley.
CEO: Sebastian Ojeda
Founded: 2013
Based in: Santiago, Chile
Funding to Date: $300,000 from a seed round
Puerto Rico
Abartys Health
Abartys Health is a SaaS solution whose mission is to help the insurance and healthcare sectors “speak the same language.” The Puerto Rican company has created three solutions: for insurers, healthcare providers, and patients. Through centralized data delivery and management, Abartys Health aims to simplify processes in the field, so that healthcare is optimized and more easily accessible for patients.
CEO: Dolmarie Mendez
Founded: 2016
Based in: Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
Funding to Date: $2.1M from Parliament Capital Management and Parallel18
Venezuela
MediConecta
MediConecta is the largest telehealth company in Latin America. Its app helps millions of people in the region find solutions for their medical issues. Users can speak to a medical specialist on demand via a video conference. MediConecta connects them with a vast network of in-house physicians that people can access from any device. The company has a headquarter in Miami and also serves the Spanish-speaking segment of the U.S. market.
CEO: Daniel Silberman
Founded: 2011
Based in: Caracas, Venezuela
Funding to Date: $4.2M from Start-Up Chile and Startupbootcamp Scale Digital Health Miami
LatAm Global Stars
Below are a couple of noteworthy SaaS companies that have jumped from Latin America onto the global scene fast becoming successful international stars.
Pipefy
Pipefy is a cloud-based business process management platform that empowers managers to build and execute any type of workflow. Through a simple Kanban-style interface companies can achieve process excellence without the need for IT, technical skills or professional services. Its fully customizable platform helps teams attain higher levels of productivity and efficiency by setting clear execution standards for every step of each process. Pipefy was the only Brazilian startup selected for Batch 14 at 500 Startups in Silicon Valley.
CEO: Alessio Alionço
Founded: 2015
Based in: San Francisco, US
Funding to Date: $18.7M from Redpoint eventures, ONEVC, Openview and others
Mosyle
Mosyle provides software solutions to help technology teams manage Apple devices, simplify technology adoption and redesign meaningful workflows in the education space. Their goal is to redefine the way mobile devices are used throughout the entire learning community – both in and out of the classroom.They work with schools, universities and teachers as well as parents and the children themselves.
CEO: Alcyr Araújo
Founded: 2012
Based in: Orlando, Florida
Funding to Date: $2.2M from DGF Investimentos, Peak Ventures and others
Rocket.chat
Rocket.chat is an open source messenger similar to Slack. The desire to be able to go beyond what companies like Slack already offer out of the box is what drove the team at the Brazilian business software company Konecty to create Rocket.Chat. After attempting to integrate Slack to other existing products the company wanted ways to not just add users or create new chat rooms, but create different types of users and chat rooms. That would allow salespeople to both chat with customers and to chat with each other. Headquartered in US, the company has a European office in London and an R&D base in Brazil.
CEO: Gabriel Engel
Founded: 2015
Based in: Porto Alegre, Brazil and Delaware, US
Funding to Date: $5M from New Enterprise Associates
Gympass
Gympass is a global discovery platform that helps companies engage their workforce in physical activity by providing unfettered access to thousands of fitness facilities. Available as a corporate benefit with flexible, rolling monthly contracts, Gympass provides unlimited access to the world’s largest network of fitness and wellness providers including; gyms, yoga and martial arts studios, boot camps, cycling, dance classes and more. Based in New York, Gympass is active in 13 countries across the world and engages over 30,000 fitness facilities within nearly 5,000 cities. It has just recieved a huge funding round from Softbank.
CEO: Marcelo Lombardo
Founded: 2012
Based in: New York, US
Funding to Date: Undisclosed from Softbank, Redpoint eventures, General Atlantic and others
Gone SaaSing
Below are a couple of noteworthy tech giants from Latin America that are transitioning to the SaaS model.
Totvs
Totvs is a renowned public company in Brazil, which has been shifting to SaaS at a fast pace. It offers innovative software, relationship and management support. Totvs is also the sixth biggest ERP company worldwide. It has offices across Latin America, the U.S., and Portugal. Their Fluig Platform that combines Business Process Management, Content Management and Identity Management is an example of a great Saas product
CEO: Dennis Herszkowicz
Founded: 1983
Based in: São Paulo, Brazil
Linx
Linx offers management software exclusively focusing on retail. In recent years, they have developed new offerings adjacent to POS and ERP software based on cloud delivery model. Examples include a complete e-commerce platform, integrated with ERP, allowing traditional retailers to take advantage of this new channel of sales and communication with customers, and an innovative CRM software focused on tools that maximize efficiency in retailer-customer interactions. The company has more than 45,000 customers and employees more than 3,000 people.
CEO: Alberto Menache
Founded: 1985
Based in: São Paulo, Brazil
Senior Sistemas
Senior Sistemas is another established and renowned Latin American company that has been steadily moving to SaaS. Launched 30 years ago it specializes in software for business management, logistics and access control. Senior Sistemas offers ERP enterprise management, people management, and business consultancy tools, among others. Its target industries include agriculture, wholesale and distribution, logistics, manufacturing, retail, and security.
CEO: Carlenio Castelo Branco
Founded: 1988
Based in: Blumenau, Brazil
Bonus
Rappi
Though not technically SaaS, we have decided to include Rappi in the list for their utter gumption to expand throughout Latin America and be incredibly successful at it. In the heart of it is their desire to be the everything store of Latin America. Rappi is a marketplace that connects users who want to purchase prepared foods, groceries, clothes, and virtually anything with independent contractors who can fulfill those needs. With operations in Colombia, México, Brazil, Argentina & Chile they seem to be doing just what they have set out to – building and shaping a new reality in LatAm.
CEO: Simon Borrero
Founded: 2015
Based in: Bogota, Columbia
Funding to Date: $392M from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global and others
These are only some of the exciting SaaS companies growing and scaling in Latin America. Whether you are growing locally, trying to expand beyond your local Latin American market or looking to venture into the vast market of Latin America, the trailblazers from these companies are the best place to start your journey.
