Merama becomes Mexico’s latest unicorn
Posted on Dec 22, 2021
The company has become Mexico’s newest unicorn less than 12 months after its incorporation.
The Series B round was led by investors Advent International and Softbank, and which follows a $225 million Series B investment in September that had pushed the company’s valuation to $850 million, and which Merama, which has operations in Mexico and Brazil, touted as “the largest Series B round ever raised in Latin America”.
Merama launched with a $160 million combined debt and equity seed funding in April, and was founded by CEO Sujay Tyle, co-founder and former CEO of Frontier Car Group.
He was joined by 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 was quoted as saying by TechCrunch. “Merama believes several multi-billion dollar brands will be created in LatAm over the next five years.”
Merama currently has more than 180 employees and a portfolio of 20 brands across Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. The company is poised to sell over $250 million of product merchandise this year, and will be “significantly cash flow positive”, Tyle was quoted as saying.
Among the brands in its portfolio are Mexican consumer electronics company Redlemon and Bebesit, a Chilean baby products seller.
In addition to acquiring digital brands, Merama launches its own, as well as developing automation and scalability tools to help those brands grow across Latin America. It also plans to monetize the underlying technology it is building that automates brand management and supply chain.
The latest funding will enable the company to expand into Argentina and the US, the company said.