Hello, and welcome to today's edition of Founders International, your daily newsletter where we cover the stories, trends, and companies in tech and startups from outside of the US.

Here's what we're covering today:1. Seed stage investments in LatAm could be the next wave2. Health tech unicorn aims for profitability3. Number of startups in Germany declining?

Read time: 2 minutes and 30 seconds

Why LatAm may be the place for seed stage companies

Like much of the rest of the world, LatAm had one of it's biggest years when it came to total capital invested in 2021, but that ended up dipping in 2022.

That doesn't mean you should begin doubting LatAm. There was a time before the Tiger and Softbanks of the world dedicated serious time and capital to the region, and entrepreneurship was still thriving.

Diego Noriega, Managing Partner at Newtopia VC, a VC firm located in LatAm is optimistic this makes the region one of the best to look for seed stage companies to fund in.

My boy Diego is a glass half full type of guy. I like it

Why? Well, he's been around the block and says that LatAm is more used to having to build low cost, scalable business models that allow for attractive VC investments, especially in downturns. This came from times of low investment in the region, which forced startups to think more lean and find cheap ways to make things work.

Because of the scrappiness of these entrepreneurs, and the commitment to good metrics, he says these companies will stand out when looking at things like free cash flow and potential market growth, and you'll be able to see it from just their MVP (minimum viable product).

How can you get access to these companies? Diego says with US VC's reportedly sitting on $290b of reserves yet to be deployed, you can start by either slowly putting in cash and watching how the companies progress. Or, you can get in by partnering with VC's in the region to gain knowledge quicker.

Or, if any of that $290 billion wants to make its way to my pocket, I would not be opposed to that either. Just uh.... give me a call

A-Company-a-Day

Today's company of the day is Alan, which is a health-tech company based out of France. They recently announced no future plans to raise money. Why? Because they have a plan to reach the golden egg of business.

Profitability.

Yes, there we have it folks a large unicorn finally deciding to focus on the path to profitability. No more WeWorks, Ubers, Pelotons setting the standard of never running a profitable business, and just lighting investor cash on fire, just like the IRS did with your tax returns.

Why is this such a story you may ask? Well, it's reported only 3 of Europes 20 most valuable companies are profitable.

The company grew revenues by 62% in 2022, and costs only increased by 30%. They are also reportedly sitting on €230m of cash in the bank, which has allowed them the means to reach profitability by 2025.

That amount of cash in the bank is more than they raised in their last round of financing in May 2022.

They attribute this success to “hiring only the best, high talent density, [and a] focus on differentiation and scalability”.

Ultimately, they have their eyes set on an IPO, but not before their goal year of 2025 when they are anticipating hitting profitability.

Number of startups in Germany trending down

Just like for most of the world, Germany was no exception to a slow down affecting much of the entrepreneurial spirit in their country. The number of startups founded in 2022 in Germany dropped 18% after a record year in 2021, going from 3,196 incorporations to 2,618.

Berlin remained atop the list of cities with the most newly founded startups at 501 on the year, which was more than double second place Munich who had 215. Munich did however take over Berlin for most incorporations per 100,000 showing the density of entrepreneurs there may be more.

Software still remained the strongest industry in the country, even with its drop of 26% in the number of new companies.

Ecommerce, software, and finance among some of the hardest hit industries when looking at number of new startups founded.

On a high note, climate tech, a growing industry of startups worldwide did see the number of companies founded grow 14%.

There are always entrepreneurs working on hard problems, and they say the best time to start a company is in a downturn, so I bet we see Germany with a bounce back this year, and get back to their ways.

And that's all for today, if you want to get more follow us @Founders_Intl, or respond to this email. Yes, we respond to all emails, including yours. Try us.

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💯 Freaking sick dude🤷‍♂️ Meh, do better next time😑 Bruh, I might unsubscribe after reading that