MadeiraMadeira is The First Brazilian Unicorn of 2021

In early January, Brazilian retailtech MadeiraMadeira received a capital injection of $190 million, becoming the country's first unicorn of 2021 by exceeding the landmark of $1 billion in market value.

Founded in 2009, the startup specializes in the online sale of construction material and  furniture. In 2020, its sales increased 250% due to the number of Brazilians adapting their home spaces for remote working amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. MadeiraMadeira also expanded its operations by opening 10 distribution centers and nine stores over the last year. 

The latest investment round was led by Japanese corporation Softbank, which has already invested R$110 million into Madeira Madeira since 2019. 

“The window of opportunity for the investment was positive. A scenario like this requires attention so that competitors do not get ahead of us.” explains Daniel Scandia, MadeiraMadeira' co-founder and CEO. “The initiatives which we've developed with our logistics branch have paid off and so we decided to speed up our projects. Investments that would’ve taken three years have been performed in one.”, he added.