Outlook for the startup ecosystem in 2024
Founders’ updates, concerns, and focus for the new year.
This is Runway by Whitepaper, a weekly newsletter covering Latin America’s vibrant startups shaping tomorrow’s business landscape. If you haven’t subscribed, sign up to get our content straight to your inbox.
To kick off Runway by Whitepaper in 2024, we revisited some of the startups we covered in the past year to share their latest developments, breakthroughs, and the challenges they face in their respective industry.
These interviews were conducted by email and have been edited for length and clarity.
Let's dive in.
Ridian makes crypto investing simple by automatically using algorithms to trade on top of established crypto exchanges. It was founded in 2021 in Mexico City, Mexico.
Updates:
We launched our institutional Liquidity Provision & Execution Services Platform in Q3 this year. We’re officially operational in more than 4 countries in Latin America and are about to launch our first offshore operation in China next year.
We also just closed deals with Bitso in Mexico & REAP in Hong Kong to become their primary partner and capture the institutional foreign exchange. It’s something we want to keep an eye on, given the opportunities offered by nearshoring in Mexico.
We are starting operations next year with a Mexican bank (over $70 billion dollars in yearly trading volume) that serves most of the global companies arriving in Mexico. We already have our second client lined up: A global payments company with operations in over 7 countries.
We’re in the process of closing a $3-4 million dollar Seed Extension, of which $2 million has already been committed. With this money, we'll be able to grow our team, consolidate our efforts in Mexico, and expand into new strategic markets.
Things we are excited about:
The ongoing crypto rally and finally seeing real institutional adoption.
Things that concern us:
Continued scrutiny and US regulators’ lack of education regarding crypto.
Priorities for the coming year:
Getting over $5 million in annual revenue and raising our Series A round.
Outlook:
Crypto will be hitting new all-time highs, with Bitcoin breaking the $100,000 dollar price mark.
Latin America is becoming the hottest emerging market for crypto funding due to:
Growing crypto adoption rates in the region.
Heightened usability for cross-border transactions with crypto.
Institutional adoption in neighboring countries, like the US.
Rogelio Sada, CEO of Ridian.
WeShip is a platform that automates, tracks and manages shipments for businesses and e-commerce stores. It was founded in 2021 in Monterrey, Mexico.
Updates:
We expect to close the year with 344% growth in net revenue.
We achieved profitability in the first quarter of the year.
We officially launched a second revenue stream with our new SaaS solution, WeShip Track.
Things we are excited about:
Starting our first round of external capital investment.
Things that concern us:
Recently, during Mexico’s equivalent to Black Friday—el Buen Fin—, the logistics sector faced significant challenges due to an unusual spike in demand. Several courier companies were forced to halt collections, close branches, and establish daily consumption limits to manage the backlog of packages. This could discourage consumers from shopping online and potentially slow market growth.
Priorities for the coming year:
Our primary focus is to sustain the growth of our flagship product and expand our product and service offerings vertically. We plan to launch WeShip Cargo, our specialized logistics solution for LTL and FTL, and WeShip Protect, our cargo insurance solution.
Outlook:
The challenges mentioned above reinforce our hypothesis regarding the importance of working with multiple logistics providers through a single portal. This approach allows for the diversification of volume and enhances consumer experience.
Adrian Galan, CEO of WeShip.
Delta Protect
Delta Protect is a cybersecurity startup dedicated to safeguarding businesses from cybercrimes. It was founded in 2019 in Mexico City, Mexico.
Updates:
In partnership with Apollo, we uncovered over 25,000 vulnerabilities across various companies.
We met our sales forecasts for a fourth consecutive year with a compound annual growth rate of 150%.
Things we are excited about:
The growing general awareness surrounding cybersecurity threats.
We are anticipating another successful investment round in 2024 to fuel our growth.
Ethical hacking is gaining traction as a common practice for identifying organizational vulnerabilities.
Things that concern us:
Cybersecurity still isn’t a top priority for many companies.
A potential talent shortage in Latin America due to the influx of foreign companies.
Latin America remains highly vulnerable to cybersecurity threats, with many entities not yet fully acknowledging the severity of the issue.
Priorities for the coming year:
Embracing a product-led sales approach.
Committing to sustained growth initiatives.
Devoting significant attention to product development and our roadmap.
Outlook:
The year ahead promises to be intriguing, with the Mexican elections on the horizon. However, record-breaking investments are pouring in.
Founders are maturing and prioritizing profitability.
Venture Capital will slowly pick up, but raising will still be difficult.
Santiago Fuentes, CEO of Delta Protect.
STRADE is a luxury sneaker marketplace. It was founded in 2022 in Monterrey, Mexico.
Updates:
Platanus Ventures made a follow-on investment of $100,000 with our new sneaker marketplace model and added us to their acceleration program for a second time.
We decided to do a small bridge round to finish building and reach Product-Market Fit. Angel investors Ian Lee (CEO at Examedi) and Tamara Chayo (CEO at Medu), both part of the Thiel Fellowship, also participated.
Since we launched in August, we have grown on average at a rate of 74% month on month. Our platform reached 70,000 monthly visits last month, and we hope to get 300,000 in the next 8 months.
Things we are excited about:
Launch of our app for sneakers buyers and sellers.
Exhibiting at the most important Sneakers event in Latin America.
Adding more product categories to our marketplace, like designer clothing and collectibles.
Things that concern us:
The logistics services in Mexico are still very insecure for luxury items. We want to ally with product insurers or a parcel service to ensure suitable delivery.
A challenge is to have protection against chargebacks from fraudulent payments. In Latin America, this is something all e-commerce businesses battle with; there is still no solution for this problem.
Priorities for the coming year:
Our primary focus is on gross merchandise volume: The goal is to transact over $200,000 dollars monthly on the platform by May 2024.
Growing our existing community is a priority in the coming year.
Outlook:
We are excited because we are finding very promising unit economics, allowing us to scale.
David Estrada, CEO of Strade.
PoloPay is a POS (Point of sale) and management solution for LatAm restaurants. It was founded in 2022 in Mexico City, Mexico.
Updates:
During our initial 8 months, we struggled to sell the menu due to the adoption of an additional system and difficulties integrating with existing point-of-sale systems.
Afterward, we expedited plans to launch a cohesive point-of-sale system. In August, the decision was made to create PoloPOS.
In November, we piloted with our first customer in Mexico City, for which we introduced a point-of-sale system developed in just 3 months.
Alongside the PoloPOS launch, we received 4 times more inbound interest from potential customers in the first 2 days compared to the entire last year of the digital menu alone.
Started December with 2 pilot locations and closed the month with 10 installed locations in Mexico City and Monterrey.
Things we are excited about:
We aim to leverage the momentum generated and our customer pipeline for the first 3 months of 2024 to attract more clients and establishments to our platform.
We seek to gain a deeper understanding of their issues to implement solutions by aiming to eliminate their day-to-day operational pains and enhance their ability to manage and comprehend their business.
Things that concern us:
We need to catch up in an industry that has been stagnant in terms of innovation for over 20 years.
Priorities for the coming year:
Continuing to understand the customer and keep execution quick.
Outlook:
The mortality rate in the restaurant industry is very high. Around 60% of entrepreneurs close their establishments within the first year. We believe that understanding the customer and executing a different vision can support the entrepreneur and restaurateur, ultimately changing this statistic.
We ended the year on a high note, and it’s time to keep working for the industry.
Andres Richarson, CEO of PoloPay.