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Leading Latin American Venture Firm Kaszek Makes First DeFi Investment

The fund led a $3 million investment in Exactly, a startup building a decentralized credit protocol.

By Andrés Engler
AccessTimeIconAug 12, 2021 at 9:04 p.m. UTC
Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 1:39 p.m. UTC
Hernán Kazak and Nicolas Szekasy, co-founders and managing partners of Kaszek.
Hernán Kazak and Nicolas Szekasy, co-founders and managing partners of Kaszek.
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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. 

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