Rayo wants to rally US$2.3 million to consolidate logistics ops in Mexico and Chile

Contxto – E-commerce growth is putting the pressure on logistics efforts. And Latin America has plenty of startups that are eager to rise to the challenge. But they can’t always boostrap their way through—sometimes external funding is needed.

To that end, Rayo opened an investment round for US$2.3 million this month.

It’s not the logistics startup’s first rodeo show. It had previously closed US$400,000 through angel investors and Corfo (a government agency from Chile).

Funding plans

The B2B (business to business) delivery startup wants to use the funds to strengthen its foothold in the two countries where it currently operates.

“Indeed this funding round is so we can consolidate in Mexico, as well as grow within Chile and we don’t discard the idea of launching into another Latin American country,” Juan Andrés Cabrera, co-Founder at Rayo told Contxto.

“We aim to continue expanding our last-mile delivery service. In Mexico, we want to launch operations into new areas like Mexico City and develop new projects that focus on different markets—retail, banking, among others— and replicate the methods we’ve used in Chile.”

Rayo and the need for speed

Admittedly, there’s an increasing number of last-mile delivery companies fighting for the market in Mexico. There’s Pack&Pack, Quick, Liftit, Picap, Mensajeros Urbanos, Zubut—to name a few.

And with so many alternatives one can’t help but wonder how Rayo aims to stand out in this crowd.

True to its namesake (“rayo” is Spanish for lightning), Cabrero says it’s all about deployment speed and flexibility too.

“Something that differentiates us from other delivery services is that we can almost immediately launch operations in a city whether it be via motorcycles, cars, or trucks,” said the co-Founder in written correspondence.

“This is due to the fact that we easily adapt to that which the customer needs, be it a nearby delivery via motorcycle or reaching a distribution center in any part of Mexico.”

Considering the volatile nature of logistics, flexibility is now a “must-have” for companies who have to deal with last-minute cancellations, changes to package orders, etc. 

Add in a disruptive event like a natural disaster or disease (I’m looking at you, Covid) and there’s a boatload of obstacles that need supple solutions.

Related articles: Tech and startups from Chile!

-ML