Zubale, the software and marketplace for processing e-commerce orders from independent contributors and retail brands, announced today that it raised US$40 million in a Series A led by QED Investor. With the new amount, the Mexican startup reaches $48 million dollars, according to Crunchbase.
Other investors such as GFC, Felicis Ventures, Hans Tung of GGV Capital, NFX, Kevin Efrusy of Accel, Wollef and Maya Capital also participated in this round.
The company founded in 2018 found a large market opportunity in Latin America. “The region’s e-commerce is the fastest growing in the world. It is estimated to reach a value of $100 billion dollars by 2025,” Sebastian Monroy, co-founder of Zubale, told Contxto.
“Latin America is the apple of e-commerce’s eye,” Ebanx noted in its Beyond Borders 221-2022 report. They noted that this was happening because there is an increasingly digitally savvy population, booming smartphone penetration, and more local fintech companies, which would lead to an average annual sector growth of 30% until 2025.
Shorter delivery times
One of the main problems retailers face is product delivery times and providing a great digital shopping experience to their users. To improve both would require a large investment in software and knowledge, Monroy explained. Zubale was born out of this need.
The Mexican startup enables a wide range of retailers such as fashion brands, supermarkets, department stores, specialty stores and pharmacies to compete and win against B2C apps and aggregators, while retaining their most important asset: their customers, say its founders.
With its integrated software, owned and developed by Zubale, the startup enables retailers to process e-commerce orders through its marketplace of independent collaborators, who pick, pack and deliver from the retailer’s facilities (stores, warehouses, dark stores) to the end customer.
What’s next: expansion and foray into fintech
Allison Campbell, CEO of Zubale, said that the new capital will be invested in three main areas: technology to reduce delivery times, expansion, and a new fintech business vertical.
The new round of financing will allow Zubale to continue crossing borders: Brazil and Chile. In the former, they started operations last Monday and in the latter, they started a week ago.
In addition, the Mexican startup plans to add a new fintech business vertical: integrated finance. Zubale has not yet well defined the financial products it will launch, but Allison Campbell told Contxto that it would launch several pilots to better understand what is needed. She also advanced that they could be credit products.
Zubale’s founder said that this new vertical in their business was the reason why they looked for a fintech investor like QED Investors, as it would also transmit them knowledge in the matter.
Currently, Zubale already has operations in Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru with more than 100 active clients. According to the company’s data, its growth has been 25% month over month and they doubled its revenues during the second half of 2021.
