Riogrande sets sights on Latin America's growing ecommerce presence

The company is coming off a $12 million seed funding round

Image: Unsplash

Latin America is a growing market in many sectors and companies have started to eye the area for expansion. Now, Riogrande, an ecommerce aggregator of sorts, is looking to make its presence known.

According to TechCrunch, Latin America is one of the fastest-growing ecommerce sectors in the world, but even so, the market is fragmented and not readily available to many consumers looking to make purchases from the US. Riogrande is hoping to change that.

Its plans have been propelled thanks to recent seed funding totaling $12 million. The round was led by Y Combinator and Wollef. In addition, investors including Arielle Zuckerberg and Justin Mateen participated in the round.

Funding will be used, in part, to help streamline the company's processes and give them more capital for acquisitions.

The company will help incubate brands in Latin America and acquire others that have a presence on selling sites like Amazon and MercadoLibre. The company is well-equipped for the challenge, with its founders and company being based in Mexico City.

“We are building great local brands for the middle class and lower class, mainly creating new brands from zero, but also doing some acquisitions where we can multiply the brand by 30 times,” says Tono Mandly, one of the cofounders, in a statement to TechCrunch.

Mandly also notes that his company's plans are different from many similar offerings that focus on quantity over quality. Product focus includes those in home, kitchen, and beauty.

Riogrande, either through support or acquisition, will then help the brand through many of the processes that cause holdups. This includes financing, supply chain issues, their presence on marketplaces, and more.

“We have our heads down to work, keep growing and maintain the growth rates with our brands,” he added. “Founders are looking for us because there are no other players who have our growth rates.”

The company has a track record, as well, already helping bring some businesses under it to $1 million in revenue.