Startup Merama raises $160 million to expand into Latin American e-commerce

E-commerce startup Merama recently announced that it has raised a total of US$160 million in Series A investment and will seek to partner with the largest e-commerce brands in Latin America to promote their growth and expansion, officially joining the Latin e-commerce boom.

Merama , a startup founded by entrepreneurs Sujay Tyle and Felipe Delgado, launched in December with a vision to become "the largest and best-selling brand in Latin America." It has dual headquarters in Mexico City and Sao Paulo.

Merama works with e-commerce product sellers in Latin America, purchasing a stake in their businesses and working with their teams to help them “exponentially” grow and develop their technology while providing them with non-dilutive working capital.

Tyle said: “Over time we will only work with a handful of brands, and only the best brands, scaling those few businesses with our entire team. We are more like The Hut Group of the EU.”

The company expects to achieve $100 million in sales in the region this year , more than double the previous year. It is currently focusing on Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Tyle said the company is already operating "very profitably". Therefore, the funds raised will be mainly used to cooperate with more brands, invest in building its technology platform to "help automate multiple aspects of its partners' brands", and for working capital for product innovation and inventory purchases.

Tyle said it is a fact that Latin American e-commerce is booming, especially during the pandemic. Mexico is the fastest growing e-commerce market in the world in 2020, but it is still in its infancy. Overall, Latin America's $85 billion e-commerce market is growing rapidly and is expected to reach $116.2 billion by 2023 .

Merama has also partnered with e-commerce giants like Amazon and Mercado Libre, and several executives from both companies have invested in the startup.

Daniel Waterhouse, partner at Balderton Capital, said his firm sees "huge potential" in Merama. "In our 20 years of building our business in Europe, we have seen firsthand what defines a leader in e-commerce," he said in a written statement. "What they have already achieved is phenomenal, and this is just the tip of the iceberg."

The e-commerce startup Merama has received extremely high praise, and many companies have provided it with financial support, looking forward to its subsequent development.

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