Monashees, Brazil’s largest venture capital firm, has raised a new $150 million fund from major U.S. and Asian institutional investors as well as Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, people familiar with the matter said.
The second-biggest VC fund ever to be raised in Latin America reflects a rapidly shifting landscape in the region’s tech sector, where major startups are beginning to attract investment from high-profile international firms such as SoftBank, Tencent and DST Global. Two of this year’s biggest tech initial public offerings in New York were Brazilian online payment companies, PagSeguro and StoneCo. U.S. tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Uber and Netflix already have a big presence in Brazil, Latin America’s largest country with 210 million people. Amazon and WeWork also are expanding their operations in Latin America to reach more users.