This week’s LATAM Roundup brings news from mobile company Logan, which have just received £1.6m from the Mexican fund Pedralbes Partners to expand their mobile ad targeting operations in the region; Abril Group launch an e-commerce marketplace with items curated by their editorial team, in a ambitious attempt to connect their magazine readers with the online world; and, finally, RTB House expand their operation in Brazil with three new hires, less than one year after opening their local office in Sao Paulo.

Logan get £1.6m from Mexican fund Pedralbes

The Latin American mobile company Logan announced their new investment. The mobile company have received £1.6m from the Mexican funding group Pedralbes Partners. The goal is to fund Logan's expansion in Latin America, given the forecast of the mobile ad market in the region.

Logan have offices in seven countries already, including Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, working mainly with mobile ad targeting solutions. “Bringing in Pedralbes will allow us to compete more aggressively in Latin America, in our main markets. Also, this will strengthen our focus: deliver innovation and best performance for marketers”, said Juan Carlos Goldy, CEO and co-founder, Logan.

According to Demian Esser, managing partner, Pedralbes Partners, the fund is investing in mobile advertising due to the momentum of the company and also the local market expectations. “Logan could build, in only four years, an efficient regional platform, led by an extraordinary team focused on reinforcing the relationships with clients”, said Esser, emphasising their good job when executing mobile ad targeting.

Abril Group launch e-commerce marketplace

The Brazilian Publisher Abril Group launched their new marketplace GoToShop. The service will sell online all the items curated by their editorial teams, featuring texts or images, both in their print or online products.

In the first stage, the items available on the e-commerce platform are curated by their technology and home decor teams, tied to the following websites and magazines: Info, VIP, Super, and Casa Claudia. The goal is to launch a fashion web store and a teen section too, managed by Capricho magazine.

“We chose the segments that represent more than 80% of the online market”, said Rodrigo Chinaglia, e-business director, Abril Group. He also emphasised the company’s work to curate and choose carefully what will be sold online.

Abril’s online editorial products will also have mobile preview, directing the users to their online marketplace. They are working with Blippar to allow readers of the print magazines to scan the pages with their smartphones and be automatically redirected to the marketplace page of the item being sold. “A multiplatform store is born with our vision to offer products on several of our platforms, which are accessed daily by millions of people”, said Tiago Afonso, marketing director, Abril.

RTB grow Brazilian team, announce new hires

Less than a year of local operations in Brazil, RTB house announced their new hires as part of their expansion in the country. “This reflects the great demand we are finding in Brazil”, said Rodrigo Lobato, country manager, RTB Brazil.

They are: Rafael Rei, sales director; Stephanie Hanashiro, account manager; and Jessica Gurgel, programmatic media coordination.

Rei has sales experience in tech companies such as Infor and Next perf. Hanashiro is a known name in the market, who had been working for Sociomantic — but also with prior experience in online retail at Centauro, and in agencies, for AD. Dialeto. Finally, Gurgel has three years of experience in the data-driven ad market when working for Boo-box, as well as experience with Brazilian publishers when working in ad ops.