Decade Raises Latin America's Biggest Seed Round

What is Decade and why does its seed round matter?

Decade is a wealth-management startup co-founded by Vitor Olivier, former CTO of Nubank, and Felipe Meneses, co-founder of Hyperplane. The company emerged from stealth mode with a seed round of US$85 million (approximately R$440 million), the largest seed raise ever recorded in Latin America. Backers include Benchmark, Diffusion, Greenoaks, Atlantico and Norte Ventures.

Decade combines artificial intelligence with human advisory to help clients consolidate accounts and assets through Open Finance, spot fee, liquidity and risk problems, recommend investments, and monitor spending and subscriptions. A basic plan will be priced at R$200 per month; the service is currently waitlist-only.

Who else raised capital this week?

Brazilian fintech Kesh, focused on payroll management and employee credit, announced a R$550 million raise combining equity and funding for its own FIDC (receivables investment fund). The round included contributions from Grupo Leste, BR Angels and partners from Across Capital. Operating for just over a year, Kesh offers payroll management, a payment account, credit and 100% cashback on interest and fees charged on consumer loans at more than 150 partner retailers.

What acquisition did Vela LatAm make?

Vela LatAm, the Brazilian subsidiary of Canadian tech conglomerate Constellation Software, acquired Cobmais, a Brazilian startup founded in 2015 specialising in credit management and recovery solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed. Cobmais will maintain operational autonomy after the deal, which brings Vela LatAm's total acquisitions in Brazil to more than 20 companies.

What is the Flash vs iFood dispute about?

HRTech Flash, a corporate-benefits platform, joined the association representing incumbents Pluxee, Alelo and Ticket in proceedings before Brazil's antitrust regulator CADE against food-delivery giant iFood, signalling growing regulatory scrutiny of the sector.