Sonico, a Buenos Aires-based social network which we covered last month as it announced a substantial growth milestone within the Latin American market, has announced today that it has closed its Series A funding round. The network raised a total $4.3 million from DN Capital, a venture capital firm located in London, as well as private investors Fabrice Grinda (Zingy, OLX), Alec Oxenford (DeRemate, also OLX), and Martin Varsavsky (FON, Ya.com).
Sonico stirred some controversy several weeks ago when it purported to have grown to become the regional leader within the Latin American market. That claim quickly drew a rebuttal from Hi5, which found Sonico’s report to be very selective in its market analysis, and thus inaccurate in its original statement. Sonico currently claims to have some 17 million users according to Alley Insider.
“This is a big step forward for the company. We have many challenges ahead, but we have found the right balance between financial expertise and specific industry know-how. Successful serial entrepreneurs such as Varsavsky, Grinda and Oxenford along with DN Capital’s experience will help us leverage our amazing team to become the number 1 player in Latin America.”
Interestingly enough, Steve Schlenker, managing partner of DN Capital issued a rather strong statement along with Sonico’s announcement of its funding round:
“Rodrigo's leadership has allowed Sonico to reach new highs at a record pace. The Hispanic market globally has been poorly served to date by the existing social networks. We believe the Sonico team is well positioned to fix this.”