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Argentine Unicorns: How to Create a $ 1 Billion Company

2021-07-19T12:21:45.695Z


There is a record of investments in technology startups. Who are the candidates to repeat the success of Mercado Libre and Globant. Blue dollar today: how much it is trading at this Monday, July 19


Damien Kantor

07/18/2021 20:10

  • Clarín.com

  • Economy

Updated 07/19/2021 9:13 AM

Investment funds are fishing in the region. They sniff that there are many new tech-based ventures with the potential to scale. Some to the sky, literally, as is the case of Satellogic, the aerospace company that designs nanosatellites and

which was valued at US $ 850 million

. This Argentine technology company is preparing its exit to the Nasdaq and is about to enter

the unicorn club

, as companies that are worth more than US $ 1 billion are known.

A barrier that Mercado Libre first managed to cross and was continued by Globant, Despegar, OLX, Auth0, and more recently Aleph Holding, a platform that captures advertising for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Twitch, TikTok and Spotify, among other networks. Its origins date back to 2005, but the company partnered with the CVC Capital Partners fund, which

valued it at $ 2 billion

.

The value of a company is calculated based on the investments it receives. It is a very popular logic in Silicon Valley, whose axis is to

bet on startups with high growth potential

. Precisely, in recent years

the region and especially Argentina, are fashionable

and in the last 4 years, 78 technology companies

captured a total of US $ 4.9 billion

, according to the study "Tecnolatinas" prepared by the consulting firm Surfing Tsunamis with the sponsored by the IDB.

The volume of disbursements in young technology increases dramatically, so "it is highly likely to emerge new unicorns ,

" he told

Clarin

Juan Manuel Giner González, director of ARCAP, the entity that brings together more than 40 funds investment. In this sense, the manager says by way of example that between 2019 and 2020, US $ 4,000 million were invested each year. "

In the first half of 2021 we already had 6,000 million,

" he remarked.

In the latest ARCAP report, from 2019, the 3 companies that raised the most were

Ualá (US $ 150 million), Auth0 (US $ 103 million) and Satellogic (US $ 50 million)

.

3 o'clock are already or are about to enter the unicorn club.

As is the case with Auth0, which develops authentication technologies.

Founded in 2013 by Matías Woloski and Eugenio Pace, it had raised US $ 330 million, which allowed it to reach a valuation of US $ 1,900 million in July 2020. In March of this year,

the Californian Okta bought it for US $ 6,500 million

.

Matías Woloski, from Auth0, the company that was sold this year for US $ 6.5 billion.

Almost all aspire to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the world's leading stock market. Mercado Libre, Marcos Galperin's giant, entered the Nasdaq in 2007. And it became the first technology company in Latin America to make its public offering of shares (IPO).

The New York Stock Exchange listed it under the name "MELI

.

"

Its market value today is around US $ 75.4 billion. Despegar and Globant, led by engineer Martín Migoya, continued the route.

There are some who are well advanced in these preparations. Days ago, Aleph Holding, the creation of Gastón Taratuta, announced the merger with the CVC Capital Partners fund and its valuation

jumped to US $ 2,000 million

. Aleph integrates 5 platforms (IMS, Httpool, AdDynamo and Social Snac), which operate the same business: capture advertising for social networks, in markets where they are not represented.

It operates in around 90 countries

in Europe, America, Asia and Africa and plans to land in the Middle East. This year they plan to reach a turnover close to US $ 1 billion this year.

A plan very similar to that of Satellogic, the technology company founded by Emiliano Kargieman and Gerardo Richarte in 2010, whose business is to

capture and sell high-resolution images of the Earth in real time

. To date, it has managed to launch 17 low-cost nanosatellites. The ultimate goal is to build a constellation of 300 satellites, all of our own manufacture, before 2025.

Ualá is a remarkable case. Almost 4 years old (it was launched in 2017), Pierpaolo Barbieri's startup received investments from

George Soros, Goldman Sachs and more recently from China's Tencent and Softbank

, which valued it at US $ 900 million. Today they have 400 employees. The interest of the funds in the fintech companies is not new, but the priority for Ualá is not to go public but to

complete the merger of Wilobank

(Eduardo Eurnekian's digital bank), an operation subject to the approval of the Central Bank.

Giner González, from ARCAP, maintains that investments are increasingly important.

Two recent data confirm this assessment.

Pomelo, a startup born just 4 months ago by former executives of Naranja X, Mercado Pago and Mastercard managed to raise US $ 9 million from a long list of investors.

It is dedicated to providing technology of means of payments for companies, cards and fintech in the region.

"

This is one of the largest seed capital rounds in Latin American history,

" the company said in a statement.

Hernán Corral, Gastón Yrigoyen and Juan Fantoni, the founding partners of Pomelo with a past in Naranja X, Mercado Pago and Mastercard.

Finally, in June, VU Security, a cybersecurity company,

raised $ 12 million

from various funds, including Globant, Telefónica, and Redwood. In the market, they estimate that it thus reached a valuation close to US $ 180 million, which will allow it to globalize its operation. Today they operate in 30 countries and plan to add another 20 in the coming months, acknowledges its CEO and founder, Sebastián Stranieri. "Getting to Nasdaq is a logical aspiration, but it is a consequence of growth and not its cause," he said.

Source: clarin

All business articles on 2021-07-19

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