- Leading Latin American e-commerce platform Nuvemshop announced it raised $500 million at a $3.1 billion valuation
Nuvemshop — a leading Latin American e-commerce platform — announced it raised $500 million in Series E funding. This round of funding was co-led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global Management with significant participation from Alkeon and Owl Rock.
And the other investors who 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. After 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) enables entrepreneurs to build and grow thriving online businesses. And Nuvemshop’s platform serves over 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. This 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.
Despite the massive market, e-commerce in Latin America still represents only about 6% of retail sales in the region, compared with 30% or more in some other parts of the world. And Nuvemshop projects the penetration rate will reach 60% over the next decade as smartphone usage continues to grow, digital banking increases, and logistics infrastructure improves. The pandemic year has become a dramatic accelerator for e-commerce and fintech products.
Along with the 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 had launched a beta version of its own payments solution platform for merchants that enables faster and more secure purchases. And 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 through installments. Since the 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. And 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.
Nuvemshop is also expanding 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.
KEY QUOTES:
“With 650 million consumers, Latin America is not only a huge market, but it is the fastest growing e-commerce market in the world. 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.”
— Matt Gatto, managing director at Insight Partners
“We envision a world in which anybody can convert a passion project into a thriving business. 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.”
— Santiago Sosa, CEO and co-founder of Nuvemshop
“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. 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.”
— John Curtius, Partner at Tiger Global Management
