Merama raises $60M and becomes a unicorn

DEC 09, 2021

BY BALDERTON

Merama has become the fastest unicorn in LatAm (less than 1 year since incorporation) by raising a US$60M follow-on round from Advent and SoftBank at a $1.2B valuation.

Merama was co-founded in December 2020 by Balderton Venture Partner, Sujay Tyle. The company is on a mission to become the best and largest online group of brands in Latin America.

Balderton first invested in Merama's Series A round and participated in its Series B in September 2021. 

The company is HQ-ed in Mexico and Brazil, and owns, grows, and automates some of the largest, predominantly online selling, brands in Latin America. They currently have a portfolio of more than 20 brands and will sell more than $250M of product merchandise in their first year alone, while being highly profitable overall. 

The Merama team

With this follow-on financing, Merama is also announcing the launch of a new division called Merama Labs.

Merama Labs will be Merama’s internal incubator that will leverage their infrastructure, team, technology, and capital base to create new emotional brands (in categories like fashion, cosmetics, supplements, and beverages) that sell primarily direct-to-consumer and are coupled with media-based marketing. Furthermore, with Brazil and Mexico being among the most influencer-driven markets in the world, Merama is partnering with leading influencers and marketing agencies to launch many of these businesses from scratch.

This new financing is a strong affirmation of Merama’s strategic plan: to begin with scaling leading brands across the region and then utilize the infrastructure to launch our own brands in categories with no leading businesses in a highly automated, capital efficient, and customer-centric way. The vision resonated with investors and our growth has been faster than expected, so we have accelerated our plans.

Sujay Tyle, cofounder and CEO of Merama

Sujay Tyle, Merama co-founder and Balderton venture partner

Merama also is announcing the hiring of two key members of its global executive team: Danilo Ferreira (fmr. CTO of Mandae) as global CTO and Ignacio Nart (fmr. Director of Marketplace at Mercado Libre) as SVP of Private Label. 

We know that having the best talent in the region has become a key component of our success. Felipe We now have Meramers from 13 different countries that allow us to build an amazing multicultural environment for outstanding and diverse people

Felipe Delgado, co-founder and CFO of Merama

Read more about the fundraise: 

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