Jooycar is bringing the Usage-Based Insurance model to Latin America. Through a small device that plugs into your car, Jooycar has access to each vehicle’s usage metrics, which individuals and insurance companies can view through an app or on their online platform. Jooycar was founded by Maria Paz Gillet, Emilio Figueroa, and Mario Ungemach, a Chilean-Mexican team with years of startup and innovation experience under their belts. Jooycar recently received US$3M in follow-on investment from HCS Capital, an investment fund based in Miami. Alex Horvitz and Luis Felipe San Martin, CEO and Managing Partner of HCS Capital, respectively, led the investment. We have invested in Jooycar twice as Magma since 2016 and are excited to add HCS as a coinvestor. Jooycar will use the investment from HCS to improve their platform and reach one million connected cars across Chile, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Mexico by 2021.
Jooycar is a perfect example of our investment thesis in action, as a startup that was founded in Chile that is now headed to the US. As a part of the investment, Jooycar will move its headquarters to the US to enter that market more smoothly. They have also added Rodrigo Labbe, ex Head of Marketing at DirecTV Chile, as new CEO, while Maria Paz will act as Chief Innovation Officer.Maria Paz is a serial entrepreneur who started her career by building Chile’s first e-commerce platform. She went on to innovate within Cencosud, one of Chile’s largest retail brands, before leaving the company to found Jooycar. We have loved working with Maria Paz and watching her build Jooycar alongside her team. You can learn more about her story on Nathan Lustig’s podcast or in this article for Forbes about Jooycar.
