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Colombia begins 2022 with an investment of 206 million dollars in the startup sector. UBITS, an online corporate training company, raised a Series B financing round for 25 million dollars.
It is the second investment in the week among the startups of the South American country, after Tül, which is dedicated to the digitization of the supply chain of the construction industry, received 181 million dollars.
Series B of UBITS was led by the Riverwood Capital fund, which has other companies in the education technology (edtech) sector in its portfolio, such as Degreed and Digital House.
Tulle also received a series B from Avenir Growth Capital and 8VC; In addition to having investors such as Monashees, Lightrock, Coatue, Tiger Global, SoftBank, Foundamental, Vine, Marathon Labs and H20, which have led the company to be valued at 800 million dollars.
The Colombian startup market kicks off 2022 with these investments after it had also set rising records in 2021, with more than $1.3 billion raised through August, placing it after the Brazilian and Mexican markets in Latin America, according to information of the Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America (LAVCA).
Both Tül and UBITS have a strong presence in Mexico: 40% of UBITS workers are Mexican and Tül has two distribution centers, one of which, located in Tlalnepantla, State of Mexico, is the largest in Latin America. with 12,000 square meters. In 2022, Tül plans to allocate 23 million dollars to expand its presence in the country, which currently covers the Valley of Mexico and the metropolitan area of Guadalajara to reach Puebla and Toluca; in addition to opening a second logistics center in Iztapalapa.
In the case of UBITSIn addition to expanding its offer of online courses from 750 to more than 2,000, the platform plans to use the resources obtained from the investment to open operations in Spain, thereby expanding the number of countries in which it operates, which currently include Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala and Panama.
Among the companies that have seen these startups Colombian companies as allies within their production chains are Cemex, Mexalit, Arcelormittal Sicartsa, Urrea and Santul, in the case of Tül, and Adecco, Alsea, Grupo Bal, Grupo Uifin, Linio, Mercado Libre and Sodexo, in the case of UBITS. . Even both companies also have a business relationship. The almost 10,000 hardware stores Tül provides services to are trained online through the UBITS platform.
“I believe that everything that is an investment for these companies in the region contributes to the development of the countries themselves,” said Martha Forero, operational director and co-founder of UBITS.
rodrigo.riquelme@eleconomista.mx
