Y Combinator, Mexico’s Water Problem, and Televisa-Univision

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Today’s charts:

Last week, we reached the front page of Reddit with our Coca-Cola chart. It generated over 3M views on that site alone! 🤯

Don’t forget to check out the comment of the week at the bottom!

A few weeks ago, we shared the organizations that are leading Latin American startups’ early funding rounds, and Y Combinator was #1. This chart shows its entire history of funding in the region through what the organization calls “batches.” It opens two batches per year for startups to apply and receive Y Combinator’s support and funding.

As you can see, it has been accepting a record number of Latin American startups into its program during its last few batches. Y Combinator describes itself as an “accelerator” that arranges startups to receive funding from either individual or institutional investors such as venture capital firms. It also trains and advises entrepreneurs through its Startup School program.

Founded in 2005 by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Tappan Morris, and Trevor Blackwell, it’s one of the most successful startup accelerators in history. It has amassed more than 3,000 startups worth over $400B combined. Rappi, Beek, and Grin were among its first LatAm investments. And more recently, it welcomed Nowports and Yummy, among many others.

The increased attention from VC Firms is a massive step for Latin American startups, and it’s encouraging to see that the Silicon Valley mindset is spreading to the South. With the support of organizations like Y Combinator, we will see many more Latin American startups succeeding in markets worldwide. And, in case you are planning to apply, this essay by Paul Graham is a must-read.

Mexico has found itself in a shocking sanitation crisis for at least 20 years as 57% of its population doesn’t have access to safely managed drinking water. This figure is nearly the same as when the UN began tracking water accessibility, meaning that efforts to address the issue have been unsuccessful or nonexistent.

Perhaps even more surprising is the inexplicable gap between some developing nations and Mexico when it comes to this same metric: Congo, a country with a GDP per capita of about 1/20th of Mexico’s, has managed to provide better access to safe drinking water since 2012.

Why is this the case? Besides likely poor prioritization by the country’s institutions, there are various forces that affect the water supply negatively:

At least on paper, the Mexican government is not entirely ignoring the issue. However, this problem can also be seen as an opportunity for innovation by private companies and entrepreneurs that are determined to make Mexico a better place.

Televisa is Mexico’s largest TV network. Univision is the US’s largest Spanish network for the more than 41 million people that speak the language there. Last month, both companies made official a $4.8 billion merger that will combine their synergies and “create the world’s leading Spanish-language media and content company.”

Shortly after the announcement, what is now called Televisa-Univision revealed its plans to go all-in on streaming. Its upcoming platform, set to be released on March 31st, will be called ViX. The company has already enlisted some heavy-hitters to help it enter this new chapter. These include former Netflix VP of content, Rodrigo Mazón; Softbank Group International’s former CEO, Marcelo Claure; and even world-renowned writers like Mario Vargas Llosa and Maria Dueñas.

The companies have a long history together. Televisa has produced and licensed content for Univision for years. It hasn’t always been a friendly relationship: In 2009, both companies settled a four-year legal battle over unpaid royalties for Televisa’s produced content. The Azcarraga family, which has owned Televisa for three generations, was also part of the founding of Univision in 1962.

There’s no doubt that both companies needed innovation to survive the new world order that Netflix and the rest of the streaming companies have led. Univision’s primetime audience fell from 3.7 million to 2 million from 2010 to 2016. Televisa has also lost market share in Mexico as more people opt for paid, ad-free entertainment. We can’t wait to see them compete in the streaming wars.

As usual, the Reddit community had very insightful discussions with us, this time about Coca-Cola. One of the comments actually gave us the idea to look into our water accessibility chart this week.

We encourage you to go through the post and read some of the other discussions

Join the discussion on social media, where we’ll be posting today’s charts throughout the week. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. We also opened a Telegram channel.

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