Startupi, a site covering the Brazilian startup scene, has raised a $300,000 seed round of its own.
The team was pitched to me as the “TechCrunch of Brazil,” and in fact it has attracted the backing of Roi Carthy, who covers Israeli startups for TechCrunch. (Carthy invested through his firm Initial Capital, which backs early-stage Israeli and Brazilian companies.) Other investors in the round include Redpoint eVentures, a partnership between Redpoint Ventures and BV Capital’s eVentures.
“Covering Israeli startups at TechCrunch for five and a half years, I can attest to the importance of having a leading force and voice in a startup ecosystem,” Carthy told me via email. “In Brazil, no one embodies this more than the tireless and passionate team of Startupi.”
The site was founded in 2008 by journalist Diego Remus and New York angel investor Michael Nicklas to make up for the lack of media coverage on Brazilian startups. There’s now a four-person team, including Remus, entrepreneur Bob Wollheim, tech journalist Amanda Demetrio, and former coworking space owner/multimedia consultant Ricardo Lima. (Demetrio and Lima are both recent hires, thanks to the new round.)
Wollheim said that Startupi currently sees about 100,000 unique visitors per month, and that it has plans to triple that number. The company also runs its own events like Startupi Camp and Startupi Con. (Like the rest of Startupi, those events pages are in Portuguese.)
Here’s the full list of investors:
Initial Capital is an early-stage investment firm focused on investing in Israeli & Brazilian startups. Typically, our sweet-spot is the $100K-300K range, however, we do have the flexibility to invest higher amounts. We are street-smart, sneaker-wearing, laid-back investors. When you do business with us, we become akin to co-founders — an extension of your team.
Roi Carthy is the Managing Partner at Initial Capital. Previously, Roi has worked at companies such as Soluto, Zend Technologies and 888.com. Roi has been covering the Israeli startup scene for TechCrunch since 2007. Born in Israel, Roi has spent many years abroad living in both the US (Boston, Olivet, DC) and in Europe (Budapest, Zurich). Today, Roi works out of Tel-Aviv and lives in near-by Givatayim.
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
