Financing brings valuation to more than $3 billion and comes only five months after its Series D
Nuvemshop, Latin America’s leading e-commerce platform, announced that it has raised a $500 million Series E round of funding.
The round was co-led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global Management, with significant participation from Alkeon and Owl Rock. Other investors that joined the round included Sunley House Capital and VMG Partners, as well as existing investors Accel, Kaszek, Kevin Efrusy, Qualcomm Ventures LLC, and ThornTree Capital. Following the company’s $90 million Series D financing in March 2021, this newest round of financing values the company at $3.1 billion and brings Nuvemshop’s total funding in the last 10 months to more than $620 million.
Nuvemshop (also known as Tiendanube in Spanish speaking countries) empowers entrepreneurs to build and grow thriving online businesses. Nuvemshop’s platform serves more than 90,000 merchants across Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, ranging from direct-to-consumer (DTC) upstarts to an expanding roster of dominant brands such as PlayMobil, Billabong, Colombraro, Zaira Beauty, Osram, Lolja, Vitabe and StrappyCo. Today’s funding will help accelerate the company’s growth in current markets and support the company’s geographic expansion into new countries, including Colombia, Chile and Perú.
“With 650 million consumers, Latin America is not only a huge market, but it is the fastest growing e-commerce market in the world,” said Matt Gatto, managing director at Insight Partners. “By offering its powerful and easy-to-use platform, built and tailored specifically for Latin America, Nuvemshop is uniquely poised to continue to lead the region’s digital transformation. We’re thrilled to be part of its next chapter of incredible growth.”
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Despite the massive market, e-commerce in Latin America still represents only about 6 percent of retail sales in the region, compared with 30 percent or more in some other parts of the world. Nuvemshop projects the penetration rate will reach 60 percent over the next decade as smartphone usage continues to grow, digital banking increases, and logistics infrastructure improves. Furthermore, the pandemic year has become a dramatic accelerator for e-commerce and fintech products.
In addition to geographic expansion, the funding will help Nuvemshop accelerate its payment and logistics capabilities, which will further drive e-commerce penetration in the region. In order to accelerate these capabilities, the company also plans to use its new funds for M&A opportunities.
- Earlier this year Nuvemshop launched a beta version of its own payments solution platform for merchants that enables faster and more secure purchases. It also reflects the Latin American consumers’ approach to paying for retail purchases over time. A full 70% of the credit card transactions on the platform happen via installments. Since its beta launch, the new product has already seen explosive growth and will be made broadly available to all merchants over the course of the next year.
- Nuvemshop’s logistics capabilities enable merchants to seamlessly deliver directly to consumers via partnerships and integrations with what would otherwise be a highly fragmented network of carriers. The company will continue to broaden its set of warehouse and carrier partners to help accelerate the adoption of e-commerce in Latin America by driving down the click-to-delivery time in most regions — now typically 5 to 6 days — to an eventual goal of the 1- or 2-day delivery, which is now standard in the U.S.
“We envision a world in which anybody can convert a passion project into a thriving business,” said Santiago Sosa, CEO and co-founder of Nuvemshop. “From the start, we have focused on building solutions tailor-made for Latin American merchants. This singular purpose has cemented Nuvemshop as the standard for merchants in this region to build direct relationships with their customers. This additional funding will allow us to not only enable our merchants to be more successful, but will enable Nuvemshop as a platform to aggressively drive e-commerce progress in the region. Faster payments and reliably shorter delivery times will cause e-commerce to further explode in the region.”
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Nuvemshop will also expand its capabilities to serve larger merchants by expanding its sales and customer support staff, as well as continuing to invest in resources and support for its rapidly growing ecosystem of app partners and agencies.
“Retailing is a very cultural-specific business and Nuvemshop’s highly localized product and ecosystem of hundreds of app partners and agencies offer an unrivaled end-to-end solution for merchants and consumers,” said John Curtius, Partner at Tiger Global Management. “Nuvemshop not only has the technology and services that Latin American businesses require but an intimate insider’s understanding of the cultural subtleties that will drive its customers’ market success. The company is laying the foundation of the e-commerce infrastructure for the next decade.”
