Latam Startups
Caccao Secures 380K USD to Bridge Social Media and Financial Markets
The startup, founded in 2024, is redefining how Brazilians access financial products through social networks.
Brazilian fintech startup Caccao has raised R$2.2 million in funding to accelerate its mission of integrating financial platforms with social media. The round was led by DOMO.VC, with participation from A2 Capital, Spin Pay, and high-profile angel investors such as Gustavo Caetano (Sambatech) and Diego Fonseca (former COO of Credit Suisse).
Caccao aims to revolutionize how financial influencers (“finfluencers”) and professionals monetize their audiences while providing everyday Brazilians with seamless access to financial solutions, including investments, insurance, and loans. The funding will be directed toward enhancing the startup’s technology, product, and team.
Monetizing Influence, Expanding Access
With the explosive growth of financial content creators, Caccao is tapping into a booming market. According to Anbima, Brazil has over 500 financial influencers with a combined audience exceeding 225 million followers.
The platform provides an SaaS-based infrastructure that enables influencers to connect their audiences directly to financial products, improving key business metrics such as Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Lifetime Value (LTV).
“Caccao was born from the realization that the Brazilian financial market, known for its innovation, could have a more efficient and transparent customer acquisition journey with the support of content creators,” said Gustavo Ruiz, CEO and Co-founder of Caccao.
“Brazilians spend an average of nine hours a day online. By integrating financial products into their digital habits, we can enhance accessibility and financial education, ultimately improving lives.”
A Strategic Play in a High-Growth Market
The finfluencer sector in Brazil has surged by 204% in the last three years, reflecting a global trend where the industry is valued at $104 billion, with Millennials and Gen Z driving growth.
Caccao’s business model is twofold:
- Helping influencers structure and scale monetization strategies
- Providing financial institutions with a powerful acquisition tool
The startup is currently in Beta phase, working with a select group of influencers to fine-tune its platform. These early adopters are already generating leads, which partner financial institutions are converting into customers.
The Story Behind ‘Caccao’
The name Caccao is a nod to its mission of reducing Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) to zero. It also pays homage to cocoa, historically used as currency, and holds personal significance for CEO Gustavo Ruiz, whose mother owned a chocolate factory for two decades.
Positioning as the ‘Home of Finfluencers’
With a curation-based model, Caccao is preparing to onboard its next wave of influencers, solidifying its status as the go-to platform for financial content creators in Brazil. As finfluencers gain influence in financial decision-making, Caccao is set to become a key enabler in this rapidly expanding ecosystem.
Latam Startups
Brazilian Startup Plinq Raises $250K in Seed Funding to Expand Background Check App for Women
Led by Spectra Investments, the funding will support Plinq’s mobile app and its move from individual searches to a subscription service.
Brazilian startup Plinq has raised about $250,000 in its first funding round, led by Spectra Investments. Angel investors also participated, including Anton Osika, Liana Selles, Fernando Montera and José Gerardo Carrero. The dollar amount is an approximate conversion of the R$1.3 million round announced in August 2026.
Plinq helps women search publicly available judicial records when checking the background of a potential romantic partner. Founded in 2025 by CEO Sabrine Matos, the company plans to use the investment to develop its mobile app and expand its ten-person team.
How Plinq’s Background Checks Work
Users enter a person’s name and phone number, and Plinq searches public sources, including court records and official publications, to compile a report. The company says its web platform attracted more than 60,000 users and processed nearly 85,000 searches during its first year.
Matos founded Plinq after learning of a femicide case in which the perpetrator had faced multiple domestic violence proceedings that the victim reportedly did not know about. The startup’s aim is to make existing public information easier to find and understand before a relationship begins.
Plinq says 10% of the risk alerts identified by its platform relate to domestic violence records. Those alerts reflect information found in public databases; a search result alone cannot establish a person’s current conduct or guarantee someone’s safety.
Mobile App and Subscription Plans
When the round was announced, Plinq said it planned to launch a women-only mobile app in early September 2026 and replace one-off web searches with a monthly subscription. The proposed app includes identity checks using facial recognition. The launch date was a company plan at the time of the funding announcement; the cited report does not confirm that the app has since launched.
Plinq aims to reach one million active users within six months of the app’s launch. For 2027, it has outlined further features, including a way for users to alert nearby women if they feel at risk during a date. It is also considering services for Brazilian women living abroad. These remain expansion targets rather than existing features or user figures.
Latam Startups
Brazil-Based AI Startup Nuvia Raises $1.8M to Expand AI Sales Agents Across Latin America
Amador Capital and Nascent led the round, which will support product development and commercial growth.
Brazilian startup Nuvia has raised $1.8 million in a funding round led by Amador Capital and Nascent. Existing investor NXTP participated alongside Crivo Ventures, Delusional Capital and investors brought together through Spectra Investimentos. Nuvia plans to use the capital to develop its platform, strengthen its team and expand in Brazil and other Latin American markets.
Nuvia develops AI agents for sales and customer service. Its platform brings conversations from WhatsApp, Instagram, voice calls, websites and email into one system and connects them with customer relationship management tools. The aim is to help businesses respond to enquiries, qualify prospective customers and carry conversations through more complex sales processes.
Building a presence beyond Brazil
Nuvia is focusing on markets where companies handle large volumes of customer conversations, particularly through WhatsApp. Most of its customers are currently in Brazil, but the company also serves clients in Mexico, Colombia and the Iberian Peninsula. The new funding will help it grow its sales and marketing operations as it pursues a wider Latin American customer base.
The startup says its agents can support tasks that extend beyond answering routine questions. In one example cited by the company, retailer Chocolat Du Jour handled approximately 25,000 customer interactions during an eight-day Easter period, with AI agents managing 91% of the conversations. These figures describe that customer’s reported use of the platform, rather than a result Nuvia has demonstrated for every deployment.
Founded in 2024, Nuvia is led by CEO John Paz, a former Brazil general manager at fintech Pomelo. The latest round follows an earlier raise of about $1.7 million, bringing its disclosed funding to approximately $3.5 million. Reports differ on the date of that earlier round, so the total is more useful here than assigning it a specific month.
Latam Startups
Brazil-Based EdTech Startup Premia Raises $975K to Expand AI-Powered Learning Platform and Pursue Acquisitions
The company’s first external investment has been followed by its acquisition of Aulapp, extending its reach into corporate education.
Brazilian education technology company Premia has raised approximately $980,000 in its first external funding round from an undisclosed family office with interests in education. The investment will support product development, hiring and acquisitions as the company expands beyond its existing school and higher education business.
Premia previously funded its operations without outside investment. Its platform uses AI to assess students’ progress, identify learning gaps and help educators tailor their support.
AI Tools for Schools and Universities
Premia says its platform uses 18 proprietary AI models designed for educational tasks. The technology analyses how students interact with learning materials and provides information that teachers and institutions can use to guide instruction.
According to the company, its products have reached 3.8 million users across 400 Brazilian municipalities and have been used by more than 4,500 teachers. Premia has also reported improvements in student performance, although the figures provided do not establish how much of that improvement can be attributed to the platform alone.
Acquisition Opens Corporate Education Market
Premia said it would use part of the investment to acquire businesses that add products or customers to its platform. It has since acquired Aulapp, an education business serving schools and companies. The value of that transaction was not disclosed. The acquisition makes Premia’s planned move into corporate education a current part of its expansion, rather than only a future objective.
The company also plans to strengthen its commercial and technology teams. Over the next two years, it aims to reach more than 20 million users, expand to 1,500 municipalities and support over 40,000 teachers. Those are company targets, not current operating figures.
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