The round was co-led by Advent International and SoftBank and is the largest Series B ever raised in Latin America. Globo Ventures and existing investors including Balderton participated.

Merama was co-founded in December 2020 by Balderton Venture Partner, Sujay Tyle. It is the leading consolidator of direct-to-consumer businesses in Latin America. The company invests in and helps operate and scale category-leading online merchants selling on marketplaces. Typically, Merama acquires a majority stake, allowing the founders to retain ownership and continue operating the businesses while supporting them with its team of e-commerce experts and working capital funding. Merama aggressively expands the brands across Latin America and the U.S. and promotes each brand individually to enhance their direct-to-consumer capabilities. It is also building a unique suite of technology tools not available from any other competitor in Latin America to power and automate the brands.This round comes less than five months after Merama closed its Series A round, and values the company at approximately US$850 million.

Sujay Tyle

To date, Merama has acquired stakes in more than 20 brands operating in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia and the U.S. Together these businesses are expected to generate over US$250 million of revenue in 2021 and are highly profitable. The company has dozens of additional brands in its pipeline but is highly selective in the businesses it chooses to partner with.The growth of e-commerce in Latin America-both in absolute terms and as a percent of total retail sales-has outpaced all other regions worldwide. The Latin American market is estimated at US$67 billion and growing 24% a year due to the low penetration of online sales (9% in Latin America versus 20% in the U.S.). Brazil and Mexico were the second and fifth-fastest-growing e-commerce markets globally in 2020.