Startup Funding @ Tec | The Week of October the 9, 2020.

PPAP raises $500 equity free. Konfío secured $1,300M MXN in debt. Techstars application is closing soon.

Hello, I hope this email finds you well and gives you some exciting news to close your week.

A quick intro into what you will be receiving. Since Today, you will be receiving a recurrent email to let you know the top news on funding from inside Tec de Monterrey. The email will have three parts: 1. Deals of the Month, which will be centered on the deals that are happening within our community; 2. Where to find funding?, which will let you know some sources of funding — from investment funds, all the way to challenges; and 3. What to read?, which is intended to make you smarter in the subject.

Have fun reading, as I had doing the research.

Deals of the Month

• PPAP is the first Mexican startup that was selected by a TechStars program ever. Now, as the manufacturing sector recovers from Covid, most Tier 2s and 3s are digitizing their processes, making PPAP a hot shot for their clients, thus, investors.
• Konfío provides digital banking and software tools designed to boost growth and productivity for small and mid-size enterprises. With this debt financing, they are solving the lack of access to financing options for Mexican Women.

Where to Find Funding?

• Techstars is one of the best acceleration programs in the World. Right now, they are hosting their programs virtually, thus giving access to startups than might not have the opportunity to access their program. Each year, they choose over 500 early-stage companies to join one of their 3-month, mentorship-driven accelerators, investing $120K USD and providing hands-on mentorship and access to the Techstars network for life. See their open acceleration programs here.
• Orion Startups Acceleration Program Call is now open until 31st of December. They are an acceleration program which invest $30K USD and provide an investment-readiness acceleration program to Biotech, IoT and AI startups that want to change the World. Learn more about them and refer to their application form here.
• INCmty is THE Latin American entrepreneurship summit. Hosting Hubspot’s Mark Halligan and Growth Institute’s Daniel Marcos, this year’s event will be fully virtual and will also host all kinds of investors. Want a chance to win free tickets? Go to this link, follow the instructions and we’ll let you know if you are a winner!

What to Read?

• Brad Feld’s and Jason Mendelson’s Venture Deals is a must-read for anyone who is willing to raise funding or to be an investor. Think of it as your funding 101 book and, if you want to put some more hours into it, you can also go to the authors’ online course (this one is already closed, but keep it in your bookmarks).
• Marcos Rascon, analyst at Tec the Monterrey’s Venture Capital Research Center, wrote this amazing article regarding on how to calculate a risk-free investment. As investors, to have safe bets on investments is crucial. Calculating the right risk-free rates grants you correct data to do the right diligence for each deal.
• Your job as a founder is to avoid at all costs the really, really bad VCs. Here’s Brett Fox quick explanation of the red flags to look for when sourcing for funding.

Something else before you go… I would love to hear from the startups and funds close to Tec de Monterrey to be featured in this newsletter. So, send me over your referrals so I can give them a look. This email will be reaching funds, angel investors, acceleration and incubation programs, founders and other stakeholders within our community.

This is also important! If you want to recommend this newsletter to anyone who you might think that will find this email of some kind of use, just let me know (sebastianh@tec.mx) and they can start receiving it from next month forward.

I’m more than happy to hop on a call to get to know each other.