I bought my first bitcoin in 2013. Like many, I was captivated by the promise of decentralized finance. But while I’ve dabbled in the space for over a decade in my personal capacity, as a professional investor, I never had the confidence to invest someone else’s money in the sector—until now.

At Fluent Ventures, we’ve avoided the speculative mania. Instead, we’ve focused on areas where this new infrastructure might offer 10x better solutions than its analog counterparts. Over the last few years, we’ve been excited about one intersection of crypto and decentralized finance: stablecoins. With Avenia, in Brazil, we have made our first investment.

The Rise of Stablecoins: A Quiet Revolution

Amid the noise of volatile tokens and meme coins, stablecoins have quietly become one of the most practical and widely adopted use cases in crypto. Pegged to fiat currencies like the U.S. Dollar or Brazilian Real, they offer the best of both worlds: the trust and familiarity of traditional currency, and the speed and flexibility of blockchain rails.

Stablecoins have exploded in use around the world.

International transfers via stablecoin rails offer three specific and concrete benefits:

• Settlement is near-instant, enabling real-time global transactions. Cross-border wires can take a few days to clear.

• Transactions are transparent, powering greater visibility. If you send money from the U.S. to France via traditional networks, a customer quite literally has no idea who has your money at a specific moment in time. On stablecoin rails, it is visible in real-time.

• Fees are significantly lower, especially compared to SWIFT, Western Union, or traditional remittance channels. Even when comparing to next gen platforms like Wise (which I use) stablecoins avoid the need for a FX provider to hold balances in multiple geographies for “netting” (Wise and others do not move all the money back and forth, instead they only move the net balances of all the back-and-forth wires.)

Stablecoin volumes haven’t just increased. A number of new use cases have emerged across B2B payments, payroll, international invoicing, and even treasury management. In emerging markets, stablecoins are creating new opportunities for customers or businesses to hold balances in hard currencies without the need to open local accounts. Expect a longer post on this soon.

The Required Plumbing: Proven Models

For stablecoins to work, one key piece of infrastructure is required: compliant on-off ramps, that are easy to access, with programmable workflow tools. And in markets where local stablecoins are not offered, these may be needed.

The value of this infrastructure is already being demonstrated globally:

• Bridge was acquired by Stripe in 2024 for $1.1 billion. The company built stablecoin-based payment APIs that allows enterprises to integrate crypto-native rails seamlessly into traditional workflows.

• Circle, the issuer of USDC, is going public. Its growth reflects increasing institutional trust in stablecoin-backed infrastructure. USDC is now used by major fintechs, banks, and enterprises for a wide range of financial operations.

• Tether, the issuer of USDT, is the world’s most profitable company on a per-employee basis. With a small team and massive adoption, Tether quietly generates billions in net income, underlining the power of well-executed infrastructure.

Avenia: Building Stablecoin Infrastructure for Brazil

Our thesis on Avenia is that similar infrastructure will be required in many markets around the world. Avenia is focused on Brazil. The company is building stablecoin rails and a digital BRL token—a localized version of what has worked globally, tailored for the unique dynamics of Brazil.

The founding team brings experience from Brazil’s top fintechs (Nubank, BTG Pactual), global crypto platforms like Coinbase, and even running a crypto hedge fund. They blend regulatory fluency with technical execution—a rare combination in any market.

Brazil is a particularly compelling geography for this model. It’s home to one of the most dynamic fintech user bases in the world. It is deeply integrated with the world economy. The regulatory environment is sophisticated, complex, and open to cryptocurrencies.

In under 12 months, they have already processed R$ 3 billion across 2 million transactions, and are profitable. When we invested, they had more cash in their bank account than when they started!

Why We Believe There is GeoAlpha with Avenia

At Fluent, we back globally inspired companies tailored to local ecosystems. We look for models that are proven, but where the edge comes from nuanced execution on the ground.

Avenia fits squarely into that approach:

1. A proven model. We’ve seen this playbook before, and we know how powerful it can be.

2. A Local winner is likely. For this business model and in financial infrastructure more broadly, we believe trust, regulatory know-how, and local integrations create strong moats.

3. Early traction. Avenia has had explosive “camel” like growth with profitable unit economics and managed burn.

4. Co-investment with a local leader. Excited to partner with big_bets, one of our favorite local coinvestors.

5. Stage-aligned. We’re investing early, where we can be most valuable as a partner.

What Comes Next

We believe Avenia represents a broader shift, not just a bet on Brazil or stablecoins, but a deeper belief in infrastructure-first models operating at the intersection of crypto and decentralized finance.

We’re thrilled to be on this journey with Avenia. If you are building something similar elsewhere, we’d love to hear from you. We are open to partnering with several teams in the same category across different geographies.

We’ve all seen the headlines. In 2024 and 2025 the story was about tariffs. During the pandemic it was supply chain dislocations from lockdowns (over 90% of Fortune 1000 companies experienced supply chain disruptions!) On top of that, there are national security and sovereignty concerns that are rising.

Supply chain has and continues to become more complicated. In this piece, we wanted to highlight a thesis area for Fluent, introduce one global unicorn, and publicly share about an investment we made last year.

A technological lifeline

Fortunately, new technology platforms are rising to help solve some of these issues.

In India for instance, Zetwerk emerged as a pioneering model for manufacturing. Its platform connects businesses with a vast network of vetted manufacturing partners, streamlining the entire production process from design to delivery. Zetwerk’s success, with over 1,800 active customers and 9 million+ parts manufactured, validates the effectiveness and scalability of this model. They are presently valued at $3.1 billion and likely going public this year.

An important driver for Zetwerk’s growth has been the increasing China+1 strategy, where, due to geopolitical tensions and supply chain vulnerabilities, companies diversify their production by establishing operations outside of China. This shift has brought its own set of challenges, including infrastructure gaps, regulatory and cultural differences to address in the new geographies and other transition costs. The need for new models enabling visibility and transparency across the entire process, while prioritizing efficiency and speed, once more becomes paramount.

In an upcoming 99%Tech episode we will deep dive into Zetwerk! Please subscribe if you’re interested to stay in the loop.

Fluent’s Thesis

Our thesis at Fluent Ventures is global replication. The biggest problems are global but often won by local champions.

In this case, we believe this supply chain shift will clearly not be unique to India. One market that has benefited from nearshoring already is Mexico.

After searching for a year for a business like Zetwerk in Latam, we met the Prima team, and knew we were looking at the next breakout player in the space.

Prima’s Story

Prima recently announced it has raised $42.5 million. Fluent was an early investor in the business, partnering with firms like Acrew, Nazca, Quona Capital and Greenoaks amongst other investors. Our investment in Prima is an example of Fluent’s geographic alpha strategy in action. We believe Prima came at the right time, to address real pains, in a huge industry ripe for disruption. This is the reason we wanted to share more on why we invested in Prima.

Meet the founders

No business model matters without the right founders. Daniel Autrique, is the unicorn founder of Klar (the Nubank of Mexico). Juan Pablo Ramos,, worked at some of the fastest growing technology companies, often leading the Latam operations, including Uber Eats and Loft. Patricio Servitje, worked with Posadas and The Boston Consulting Group. They know each other from Stanford.

We had a chance to get to know the founders while co-hosting an event with the Council on Foreign Relations on technology solutions in supply chains, where Daniel was one of the talks of the show!

The LatAM opportunity

Over the last years, Mexico has experienced a surge in manufacturing activity, fueled by the nearshoring trend, where North American companies are shifting production closer to home. By 2023, Mexico supplanted China as the #1 exporter to the US, and the country's annual industry growth was more than double than the last 10 years average. Yet, this increasing demand is hardly seized by an industry filled with inefficiencies.

The manufacturing industry in Mexico (and more broadly across LatAM) is enormous. With close to 600k businesses, is not only highly fragmented, but also filled with micro companies (only ~1.5% of these factories have over 100 employees). The micro and SMEs are characterized by low sophistication, still relying largely on manual processes (it is estimated that less than 15% of sales in the manufacturing industry are internet enabled). This makes them very inefficient, with significant excess capacity and huge administrative burden.

On the other side, there is an unmet demand for customized products. The problem is exacerbated by different pains across the supply process, including inefficient and decentralized discovery, long and filled with errors RFQs, and poor quality on deliveries.

The combination of both, growing market and industry ripe for disruption, represents a perfect mix for a player to address these pains and take advantage of the developing opportunity.

Prima’s Product & Vision

Prima is looking to become the digital manufacturing and supply chain integrator in Latin America, disrupting the enormous manufacturing industry in the region. By offering end-to-end solutions, Prima seeks to solve the most critical needs of the industry, offering value to both, supply and demand stakeholders.

For suppliers, Prima provides access to a larger pool of potential clients, enabling them to expand their business and increase revenue. The platform also simplifies quoting, project management, and logistics, freeing suppliers to focus on their core manufacturing expertise. Further, the company's financing options will help suppliers overcome working capital constraints and unlock growth opportunities.

For buyers, Prima acts as a seller of record and single point of contact for all manufacturing needs, streamlining the sourcing and procurement process. Prima provides competitive pricing for its clients, maintains strict quality control standards and guarantees on-time in-full (OTIF) deliveries. By placing itself at the center of the operation, Prima will continue its vision to digitize the entire workflow of the manufacturing industry.

The Context

The world has changed since our investment in the company last year, including with the new US administration. However, we believe Zetwerk style business that helps localize and evolve supply chains will become increasingly important in LatAM. A number of self-reinforcing trends explain why this strategy is possible today.

• Global supply-chain disruptions after the pandemic: Supply-chain disruptions forced a massive re-evaluation. This is a catalytic moment and a big opportunity.

• Existing Manufacturing Prowess: Both Mexico and Latin America have established manufacturing industries. The availability of skilled and low-cost labor (direct labor is estimated to be 70% less expensive), existing infrastructure, and supply chains can facilitate smoother entry and growth.

• Cost Competitiveness: LatAM’s overall lower operating costs has made it a key destiny for large global manufacturing companies.

• Nearshoring/friendshoring trend: There has been a trend of North American companies nearshoring their manufacturing operations to Mexico because of proximity and that it is an ally. TBD of course on the new potential tariffs, though Prima has shared its own perspective.

• B2B commerce tech enablers: Digital payments, logistics, data analytical tools, and commerce infrastructure tech has already been developed, making it possible to build and grow a solid platform without incurring in exorbitant costs.

• Growth Potential: Mexico and Latin America are emerging markets with significant growth potential. The demand for manufactured goods is likely to rise, creating opportunities for businesses like Prima.

The next few months will certainly be volatile as supply chains get reconfigured. We also view this as a big opportunity for dynamic players. We think Prima will be part of this new wave and are excited to be part of their journey.

As part of our fund strategy, we are always looking for founders that are building in proven business models that we believe can be replicated around the world. If you are building a B2B platform, we would love to connect! Please reach out to investments@fluentvc.com.

BRKZ, a Saudi Arabia-based B2B Construction Marketplace, emerged from stealth and announced its $8 million Series A funding round co-led by 9900 and BECO Capital. Fluent Ventures invested in an earlier round.

The syndicate includes a number of global and local investors like Aramco’s Wa’ed Ventures, Knollwood Investment Advisory, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Class5, among others.

Our investment in BRKZ is an example of our geographic arbitrage strategy in action. We back local monopolies building proven global business models. Today, B2B Marketplaces for construction servicing “traditional” contractors are succeeding around the world yet MENA remains ripe for disruption. We believes BRKZ can execute on a playbook to build a B2B marketplace for construction in MENA similar to Infra Market (India) Of Business (India), BRIK (Southeast Asia), Material Bank (United States), Kojo (United States), Tul (LatAm), Schuttflix (Europe), and Chausson (Europe).

We are excited by what BRKZ is building towards and wanted to share our thoughts:

Background on the Founder and Company

Founded in 2022 by Ibrahim Manna, a seasoned entrepreneur with a deep background in logistics and a former executive at Careem, BRKZ addresses several critical challenges facing the construction industry. These challenges include fragmented supply chains, operational inefficiencies, and restricted access to financing. BRKZ leverages technology to offer a platform that connects construction businesses with a wide array of suppliers, providing competitive prices, multiple delivery, and payment options, and a streamlined request for quotes (RFQ) process. The solution enables key players to expand their market reach efficiently.

Addressing a High-Value Market

MENA is experiencing a construction renaissance. Driven by Gulf countries, construction is reaching unprecedented heights in the MENA region, with ongoing and planned infrastructure, transport, and building projects valued at approximately $2.5 trillion.

Additionally, Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 outlines ambitious goals for diversifying the economy and developing public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation, and tourism. All this will require investments in physical infrastructure – thus construction.

While there is a market opportunity, the construction industry in MENA faces major challenges plagued by a fragmented supply chain, inefficient operations, and a lack of access to financing.

1.     Fragmented Supply Chain: Today, the breadth of items available (SKUs) are limited by suppliers’ store space. There is a lack of comprehensive SKUs catalogues to present products with their specifications. This leads to suppliers relying on in-city stock for same-day delivery with limited and outdated catalogues.

2.     Operational Efficiency: Today, a contractor must coordinate with several suppliers and pricing is not transparent. The orders are placed by phone and in person. There are consistently unreliable delivery schedules with no ability to track orders. And when deliveries are late, this is not just an inconvenience, but generates real costs from idle time from paid employees (and project delays). Presently, almost a third of orders face delays due to these challenges.

3.     Lack of Access to Financing: Given the construction space, the industry is highly capital intensive, and credit is not offered to everyone, and it is extremely expensive. Informal players keep error-prone note-pads. And this industry is hard to reach, with limited visibility on earnings. No wonder working capital is hard to access.

BRKZ is tapping into the market with a high demand for innovation and efficiency. BRKZ's model improves efficiency and reduces costs for both suppliers and contractors. The platform's ability to attract a wide range of suppliers (around 350, offering about 1,200 assorted products) demonstrates its capacity to meet the diverse needs of the construction sector. The company has the potential to significantly disrupt and enhance the traditional construction procurement process.

Leveraging Technology for Efficiency

BRKZ’s solution enables customers on its platform to achieve higher growth for their businesses through preferential pricing, flexible financing, and frictionless fulfillment.

One of BRKZ's core strengths is its ability to harness technology to solve longstanding problems within the construction sector. The platform's tech-enabled ecosystem aims to revolutionize how building materials are sourced, purchased, and supplied, promoting transparency and operational efficiency. The features of the platform are tailored to customers’ needs and solve the most intractable procurement challenges in the industry.

From a usability standpoint, the company is building a digital experience for the needs of the target segment accessible through web, mobile, and WhatsApp. This enables the company to meet the customers in their workflows.

We are excited by the vision and believe the importance of digital solutions in transforming traditional industries.

Expansion and Growth

With the latest funding round, BRKZ plans to deepen its proprietary capabilities and expand its footprint across Saudi Arabia and beyond. This growth is not only crucial for BRKZ but also aligns with Fluent Ventures' strategy of investing in companies with the potential for significant expansion and impact across local markets. The construction industry's size and scope in the KSA and the MENA region offer opportunities for BRKZ to scale and evolve.

Fluent’s Investment into BRKZ

Fluent Ventures is excited to partner with BRKZ to help revolutionize the construction industry in the MENA region. By backing BRKZ, Fluent Ventures not only capitalizes on a high-value market opportunity but also contributes to the transformation of a sector critical to the region's economic development and diversification efforts. As BRKZ continues to grow and expand its capabilities, its impact on the construction sector is expected to be profound, with potential benefits extending across the industry's entire value chain while cutting out the middlemen to drive improved margins.

As part of our fund strategy, we are always looking for founders that are building in proven business models that we believe can be replicated around the world. If you are building a B2B construction marketplace outside of MENA, we would love to connect! Please reach out to Alex@fluentvc.com.