Leading Latin American Venture Firm Kaszek Makes First DeFi Investment

Kaszek, a leading Latin American venture capital fund, made its first decentralized finance (DeFi) investment, leading a $3 million round in Exactly, a startup that is building an open-source, non-custodial credit protocol on the Ethereum platform.

• “We see a gigantic emerging opportunity in DeFi, which will change the financial landscape in unimaginable ways in the years to come,” Hernán Kazah, Kaszek’s co-founder and managing partner, said in a statement, adding that the investment is part of two recently raised funds totaling $1 billion.
• This is Kaszek's second investment in the crypto ecosystem. In December 2020, the firm co-led with QED a $62 million Series B round in Mexican exchange Bitso and joined a $250 million C round in Bitso in May.
• Exactly CEO Gabriel Gruber told CoinDesk the firm will use the funds to build the protocol and team, which includes hiring smart contract engineers.
• Exactly's platform will enable lenders and borrowers to access fixed income solutions as a first step, and longer term, help connect DeFi to traditional financial institutions, according to Gruber.
• In addition to Kaszek, the round also included 6th Man Ventures, Maker Growth, Baires DAO, 11–11 DG Partners, Newtopia VC, NXTP Ventures and Sur Ventures.
• Marcos Galperin, the founder of Latin America’s largest online marketplace, Mercado Libre, participated as an angel investor along with Uphold CEO JP Thieriot and Auth0 CTO and co-founder Matias Woloski, among others.

Read more: VCs Pumped $4B Into Crypto Firms in Q2: CB Insights