Merama: $225 Million Funding And About $850 Million Valuation

By Annie Baker ● Oct 9, 2021
  • Merama — a leading acquirer and builder of direct-to-consumer businesses in Latin America — announced recently that it raised $225 million in Series B funding at a valuation of about $850 million. These are the details.

Merama — a leading acquirer and builder of direct-to-consumer businesses in Latin America — announced recently that it raised $225 million in Series B funding at a valuation of about $850 million. And the all-equity round was co-led by Advent International and SoftBank Group.

New investor Globo Ventures — the venture arm of the Brazil-based media conglomerate — and existing investors Monashees, Valor Capital, Balderton Capital, and MAYA Capital also participated in the financing, which was more than three times oversubscribed.

Advent is a core investor in Thrasio – the largest acquirer of Amazon FBA brands globally. And SoftBank has invested in several of Latin America’s largest online platforms and retailers such as Rappi, Petlove, and Olist.

Launched in December 2020 with dual headquarters in Mexico City and São Paulo, Merama invests in and helps operate and exponentially grow the largest, mainly online, brands originating in Latin America. And the company typically acquires a majority stake, allowing the founders to retain ownership and continue operating the businesses while supporting them with its team of e-commerce experts and working capital funding. Merama is aggressively expanding brands across Latin America and the U.S. and promotes each brand individually to enhance their direct-to-consumer capabilities. It is also building a unique suite of technology tools not available from any other competitor in Latin America to power and automate the brands.

So far, Merama has acquired stakes in more than 20 brands operating in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia and the U.S. And together these businesses are expected to generate over US$250 million of revenue in 2021 and are highly profitable. The company has dozens of additional brands in its pipeline but is highly selective in the businesses it chooses to partner with.

In connection with the Series B financing, Wilson Rosa, Head of Retail and Consumer Investing for Advent in Latin America, and Paulo Passoni, Managing Partner of SoftBank Latin America, will join Merama’s board of directors. And Alex Szapiro, Operating Partner and Head of Brazil for SoftBank Latin America and former General Manager of Amazon Brazil, will join the board as an observer.

KEY QUOTES:

“This new financing from some of the world’s premier investors is a strong affirmation of Merama’s business model, momentum and the size of the market opportunity. We are pleased to welcome Advent, SoftBank and Globo Ventures as new partners alongside our existing investors and believe their deep experience building businesses in both Latin America and e-commerce will benefit Merama significantly.”

— Sujay Tyle, co-founder and CEO of Merama

“The new capital from the Series B round will enable us to pay down debt more rapidly, partner with more great businesses, finish building our technology platform and provide working capital to existing brands. With the support of Advent, SoftBank and our entire investor base, we look forward to continuing our rapid growth and solidifying our position as the leading e-commerce aggregator in Latin America.”

— Felipe Delgado, co-founder and CFO of Merama

”E-commerce in Latin America is growing exponentially, creating enormous opportunities for leading builders of online brands like Merama. We have strong conviction in our differentiated model of collaborating with founders to grow a select number of the best brands into de facto category leaders.”

— Renato Andrade, co-founder of Merama

“This financing round will enable Merama to continue its accelerated growth in a large, underpenetrated and highly fragmented market.”

— Brenno Raiko, Head of Technology Investing for Advent in Latin America

“Merama has a solid founding team with proven M&A capabilities and a relentless focus on building value in the brands through sales channel and supply chain optimization, marketing, international expansion and other levers. We look forward to partnering with Sujay, Felipe, Renato and the rest of the team to drive the company’s continued development and expansion.”

— Wilson Rosa

“Led by an exceptional team, Merama has quickly begun building a select portfolio of leading online brands in the rapidly expanding Latin American e-commerce market. We are thrilled to partner and support their mission to remove merchant’s traditional barriers to scale, building category leaders throughout the region.”

— Paulo Passoni