C
Christine Hall
Guest
When it comes to investment in e-commerce aggregators in Latin America lately, when it rains, it pours.
Merama, which acquires or launches Latin American digital brands, hit a 60 million follow-on investment led by Series B investors Advent International and Softbank. It also comes a day after fellow LatAm e-commerce aggregator Quinio announced \)"> 225 million Series B investment, announced in September, that put the Mexico- and Brazil based-company at an \)"> 160 million in a combined debt-and-equity seed and Series A round. In total, the company has raised 345 million is equity and
The company was co-founded by CEO Sujay Tyle, co-founder and former CEO of Frontier Car Group; Felipe Delgado, previously CEO of Beetmann Energy; Olivier Scialom, co-founder and former COO of Petsy; Renato Andrade, previously associate partner at McKinsey; and Guilherme Nosralla, former head of growth at Wildlife Studios.
“Latin America is the fastest growing e-commerce region in the world yet brands are extremely nascent or non-existent,” Tyle told TechCrunch via email. “Merama believes several multi-billion dollar brands will be created in LatAm over the next five years.”
Today, Merama has more than 180 employees and a portfolio of 20 brands across Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. It is poised to sell over 85 billion e-commerce market in Latin America is growing rapidly, with projections of it reaching Nebula Brands took in \)"> 50 million this week.
Before them was Gravitiq, focused on healthcare brands, and Heyday’s\)"> 1 billion in October, while Perch grabbed a large investment of $775 million in May.
Different from Thrasio and Perch, Tyle explained that “Latin America is a growth story and thus Merama focuses on significantly fewer brands and is focused on scale and expansion. The goal is to have a single category leader in each major e-commerce category rather than consolidate hundreds of brands.”
The funding also helps the company to launch Merama Labs, touting it as “the first-of-its-kind Latin American incubator for direct-to-consumer brands.” The internal incubator will create new D2C brands in categories like fashion, cosmetics, supplements and beverages. It is a new growth channel that incubates and launches digital D2C brands in multiple categories in-house.
“We will create brands alongside influencers,” Tyle added.
Merama, which acquires or launches Latin American digital brands, hit a
The company was co-founded by CEO Sujay Tyle, co-founder and former CEO of Frontier Car Group; Felipe Delgado, previously CEO of Beetmann Energy; Olivier Scialom, co-founder and former COO of Petsy; Renato Andrade, previously associate partner at McKinsey; and Guilherme Nosralla, former head of growth at Wildlife Studios.
“Latin America is the fastest growing e-commerce region in the world yet brands are extremely nascent or non-existent,” Tyle told TechCrunch via email. “Merama believes several multi-billion dollar brands will be created in LatAm over the next five years.”
Today, Merama has more than 180 employees and a portfolio of 20 brands across Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. It is poised to sell over
Before them was Gravitiq, focused on healthcare brands, and Heyday’s
Different from Thrasio and Perch, Tyle explained that “Latin America is a growth story and thus Merama focuses on significantly fewer brands and is focused on scale and expansion. The goal is to have a single category leader in each major e-commerce category rather than consolidate hundreds of brands.”
The funding also helps the company to launch Merama Labs, touting it as “the first-of-its-kind Latin American incubator for direct-to-consumer brands.” The internal incubator will create new D2C brands in categories like fashion, cosmetics, supplements and beverages. It is a new growth channel that incubates and launches digital D2C brands in multiple categories in-house.
“We will create brands alongside influencers,” Tyle added.