RD Station from Brazil raises US$50 million Series D from Riverwood Capital

Contxto – Brazilian SaaS developer RD Station (Resultados Digitais) recently wrapped up a Series D round worth US$50 million led by U.S. private equity fund Riverwood Capital. According to Touchpoint Marketing Mexico, this is presumably the largest investment that a Latin American SaaS startup has ever raised.

“RD Station has enormous growth potential, both in Brazil and in the rest of the world, as well as a record of excellent performance and a committed team,” said Joaquim Lima, General Director of Riverwood Capital, in a press release. 

“We are sure that it is a company that will generate an even more significant impact and that will boost the entire entrepreneurial and small and medium-sized business ecosystem.”

Riverwood Capital has previously helped scale tech companies such as Druva, GoPro, Nutanix, as well as Spreadfast. Within Latin America is has collaborated with Globant (appearing on the NYSE in 2014 following its IPO) and 99.

“We are very excited to join the RD team and share their plan to become one of the best software companies in Brazil and Latin America, helping to boost SMEs in the region with digital tools that allow them to sell more and scale their businesses,” said Francisco Alvarez Demalde, Co-Founder and Partner of Riverwood Capital.

TPG Growth, DGF Investimentos, RedPoint Eventures, Astella Investimentos and Endeavor Catalyst joined Riverwood Capital in this round. 

Capital will go towards strengthening RD Station’s four main pillars: international expansion, product development, customer experience, and talent recruitment. 

International expansion

The company intends to consolidate operations in Mexico and Colombia. Additionally, RD Station will work towards expanding to other emerging markets in hopes of replicating its successful business model. 

Product

Another part of the investment will go towards R&D for enhanced marketing and sales products. To evolve, it intends to continue introducing intelligence solutions such as machine learning to its platform. 

Customer Experience

The company plans to grow its successful customer experience model to focus more on education and ecosystem support. 

“In addition to developing and marketing software, RD has always been concerned with educating the SME market and fostering allied ecosystems in services and technology, which is essential for emerging markets,” said Eric Santos, CEO of RD Station.

Talent 

Last but not least, RD Station intends to recruit new team members, hopefully finding the best talent on the market. This way, it can ensure consistent development and innovation. 

Growth machine 

Using what’s called a “growth machine,” RD Station offers strategic digital marketing for SMEs to leverage operations. Its versatile all-in-one platform allows partners from various industries to utilize the software for immediate and long-term results. This way, they can generate more traffic, make more leads, and land more business sales.

Since its 2011 founding in Florianopolis, Brazil, the startup has applied this methodology among 13,000 customers in 20 countries. All the while, it has maintained an upward growth curve and on-boarded around 700 employees. 

This investment round is the latest form of validation the company needs to keep the momentum going. 

“This new round of investment shows that we are on the right track and that our work has an important economic impact through developing communities and generating jobs and businesses,” Santos. 

“More and more small and medium-sized companies use cloud platforms, since they are of easy adoption and allow scalability. In addition to the above, these tools are generally much more accessible in financial terms, favoring a greater return on investment.”

-JA