Nilo Ventures Invests in YCombinator Backed Mexican Startup, Covela.

Sebastian Krestin
Nilo Ventures
Published in
2 min readAug 30, 2019

As Latin America continues to receive smart capital and experience steady economic growth, the foundation for Latin America’s flourishing tech ecosystem continues to strengthen. Recently, an article in Forbes announced that Latin America’s economy is now growing faster than Asia’s. YCombinator (YC), currently one of the world’s most successful startup accelerators, has made an increasing number of investments in Latin America. This is a major auspicious indication of the growth to come. In 2019, YC invested in 24 Latin American startups, more than double the amount of startups they have invested in since inception.

Aerial view of the Skyline in Mexico City, flying over Parque México
Aerial view of the Skyline in Mexico City, flying over Parque México

Covela — The first digital insurance broker for SMEs in Latin America

After Nilo’s investment in Keynua — an e-signature platform founded by the same team who built and sold Cinepapaya to Fandango — the fund has backed digital insurance broker, Covela (YCombinator S19).

Today, Covela is entering the rapidly growing Latin American economy as the first insurance robo-broker for the 25M SMEs in LatAm. Using a complex algorithm, Covela can effectively advise companies on the ideal coverage they need to fully safeguard their business. The technology used would allow SMEs to instantly compare prices and conditions, as well as enable the user to conveniently manage their policy, all seamlessly online.

Covela’s CEO, Victor Garrido Freyria, envisioned this model while working for the family business, managing business insurance policies. He noticed major flaws in the insurance system for SMEs and took it upon himself to find an effective solution to this industry shortcoming.

Nilo Ventures & Y Combinator

Nilo Ventures continues to make the most of Latin America’s growing tech ecosystem and YCombinator’s confidence in the region. Nilo founders, Alejandro Garcia-Amaya & Ricardo Garcia-Amaya use their seasoned experience as Silicon Valley tech founders to not only invest, but mentor promising tech founders from LatAm. For so many LatAm founders, the assistance in bridging the knowledge gap between new school LatinX founders and Silicon Valley investors, is invaluable.

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