Julio Vasconcellos

I’m thrilled to announce defy.vc’s investment in Birches Health as part of their $20M combined Seed and Series A funding round, alongside incredible partners like AlleyCorp, General Catalyst, Will Ventures, and others. As someone deeply passionate about backing companies that tackle important problems for our society, I couldn’t be more excited about what Birches is building—a national virtual clinic dedicated to treating gambling addiction and related behavioral disorders like gaming, sex, porn, and internet addictions. What excites me most is Birches’ innovative health assurance model: proactive, accessible, and affordable care that’s evidence-based and delivered right at home. With the explosion of legal sports betting—think nearly $1.5 billion wagered on this year’s Super Bowl alone—we’re staring down a looming public health emergency. Traditional options like hotlines or generic therapy fall short for this high-acuity issue, but Birches changes that by offering specialized therapy from trained clinicians, multimodal treatment, and peer support, all covered by major insurers like United Healthcare, Cigna, Aetna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. It’s available in all 50 states, breaking down geographical and financial barriers that have left so many without help. The impact is already profound: 96% of patients report an improved quality of life, and 94% give Birches a 5/5 rating. By partnering with state governments, payors, and policymakers, Birches is pushing gambling addiction into the spotlight of behavioral health conversations, where it’s been neglected for too long—often leading to shame, worsened outcomes, and higher suicidality risks. This funding will supercharge their growth: expanding the provider network, boosting clinical excellence, scaling infrastructure, and deepening insurance and state partnerships to meet surging demand. Very excited to partner with Elliott Rapaport and the entire Birches team! See more about our POV in the blog post linked in the comments. #GamblingAddiction #BehavioralHealth #HealthTech #VentureCapital #Innovation

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Compliance has been a hot topic at QED lately. Building on Shruti's post on AI and compliance and Camila's thoughts on fraud in Brazil, I’m sharing a few reflections on the broader state of compliance infrastructure in Latin America. There’s still a long way to go. AI holds promise, but we may need to strengthen the fundamentals before we hit a real inflection point. Fintechs in LatAm: What tools are you using for KYC, KYB, and fraud detection? Where are the biggest friction points—or opportunities? Builders: If you’re working on the future of compliance infra in the region, we’d love to connect. Whether you're just getting started or scaling fast, we’re always looking to back bold teams solving hard problems. Read the full post here: https://lnkd.in/e7neXNAN #fintech #latam #compliance #identity Mike Packer Bill Cilluffo Nigel Morris Fernando Gonzalez QED Investors

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Brex just announced they are going all in on "Agentic Commerce".  Here's my interview w/ Founder & CEO Pedro Franceschi where he unpacks why. The battle for Agentic Commerce is one of the most important things happening in fintech...$100s of billions of payment volumes are up for grabs. We talk about - What is agentic commerce & why it matters? - Why the biggest near term opportunity is B2B (not consumer)? - What the competitive landscape looks like? (Ramp also announced their Agentic commerce offering the same day!) I’m especially excited to talk to Pedro because he’s an amazing engineer.   - At 13 he jailbroke the iphone - At 15 he founded Pagar.me (the Stripe of brazil) - At 22 he founded Brex Today, he’s 29, recently married (congrats!) and is working 9-9-6 with a small team of engineers in person in San Francisco to build the future of Agentic Commerce. Check out the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/g5nSRDXJ

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I've been spending some time thinking about the second-order effects of what happens as large, multi-stage venture funds account for a greater share of VC AUM. One area of particular interest to me is the evolving conversation around how multi-stage firms will think about conflicts in a world where they need to be in the biggest, power law companies. https://lnkd.in/d2RZXcEw

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As we dive deeper in growing our healthcare investing at Bread and Butter Ventures, I'm sharing a few thoughts on the future of healthcare investing in our latest blogpost. I'm excited about several areas: 💡 Democratizing access to quality care for all 💡 Innovation in the fintech and payments layer of healthcare 💡 The potential for AI to optimize and drive efficiency in everything from operations to clinical decision support to care delivery and patient experience 💡 Population health solutions and preventive care The policy headwinds and tailwinds as well as the growing ubiquity of opportunities for AI in healthcare make this a more interesting time than ever to be building in this space. I welcome your thoughts on what you are seeing, what excites you, and what we should be on the lookout for in the months and years ahead! Full post here: https://lnkd.in/gVcRK7CF #digitalhealth #AI #healthcare #investing

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If you asked me today where I’d place a big bet in Brazil (beyond financial services), my answer would be healthcare + AI. Why? Because AI is finally giving the sector the tailwinds it’s been missing. Healthcare in Brazil is broken, massive, and ripe for digital entrants that can build billion-dollar revenue businesses in Brazil alone. But the opportunities aren’t where most people are looking. Not in biotech. Not in clinical trials. At least, not yet. The real disruption is happening at the infrastructure level — how doctors work, get paid, and scale. Livance is a case in point. In this week’s Insider, I sat down with founder & CEO Claudio Mifano, CFA to unpack his model and the broader healthcare opportunity in Brazil. We discuss: - Why healthcare in Brazil is a winner-takes-most market - What trading psychology can teach founders about decision-making - How AI is reshaping healthcare workflows - Why healthcare is not SaaS — and what that means for unit economics - The most valuable things investors bring post-check Swipe through for my favorite highlight and read the full conversation — link in the first comment. And don’t forget to subscribe — it makes a huge difference for our growth.

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I'm happy to announce that Founder Institute is bringing on Paul O'Brien as our first Head of Public Affairs. Paul joins FI with decades of experience tackling the systemic reasons startups and local ecosystems fail due to misaligned policy, underperforming startup programs, or institutional neglect of the realities of launching endurable businesses in today's economy. From Austin to Silicon Valley and beyond, Paul has championed the idea that education is infrastructure, and that cities should treat entrepreneurial development as essential as roads, broadband, and water. At FI we couldn't agree more, and as AI transforms our economy I believe the future of our society will be found at the convergence of how we teach, how we govern, and how we serve entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, I speak to government and economic development officials every week that are completely neglecting the education and development of new entrepreneurs in their regions. In his new role, Paul will help us push FI's mission to empower communities of entrepreneurs forward through Policy Engagement, University and Civic Integration, and Ecosystem Accountability. If your city, university, or organization is ready to integrate structured entrepreneurial incubation and acceleration with policy and capital strategy, now’s the time to connect! 🔗 Read the full announcement - https://lnkd.in/eenwHujW (and welcome on board, Paul! 👏 )

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