VTEX
Former US president Barack Obama and VTEX's cofounder and co-CEO Geraldo Thomaz
- London-based e-commerce infrastructure company VTEX recently raised its first major fundraising round from SoftBank's Latin American fund and two major Brazilian investors.
- The $140 million round will see the company expand its operations in new geographies, improve its product and boost its research and development spend.
- VTEX provides back-end e-commerce services for retail giants such as Walmart and Coca-Cola, handling aspects such as order management and the online checkout process.
- "Previously we were allergic to external funding because we were doing well without, but now we know how to scale and see the opportunity," Mariano Gomide, co-CEO of VTEX, told Business Insider in an interview.
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Two Brazilian entrepreneurs spent years shunning external funding as they grew their business before deciding to take on SoftBank cash in a bid to take the company to the next level.
VTEX, a London-based e-commerce business, raised $140 million in venture funding from SoftBank's Latin American fund plus prominent Brazilian investors Gávea Investimentos and Constellation Asset Management.
The company counts brands including Coca-Cola and Walmart among its clients, and provides back-end e-commerce software. The firm wants to expand its operations deeper into the US and Europe.
Founded in 1999, VTEX has generally avoided taking big capital. "I think it's a big mistake from entrepreneurs to think of a big funding round as an end goal," VTEX's co-CEO Mariano Gomide told Business Insider in an interview. "We were allergic to investment until we found the best way to apply that money wisely to scale and now we have our playbook for growth."
The company met with SoftBank, famous for its $100 billion Vision Fund which backs companies like Uber and WeWork, 14 months ago after Mariano Gomide and co-CEO Geraldo Thomaz were fishing in Mexico and decided to ramp up operations.
The draw of SoftBank was the fact that the company's Latin American fund is built out by entrepreneurs who understood the VTEX founders' desire to keep control of the company while scaling. VTEX met with some 50 investors, Gomide claims, before settling on SoftBank at a "good" valuation with IPO plans in place in the next three to four years.
The firm wants to build out its artificial intelligence offering, up its research and development spend, and expand internationally. Despite being headquartered in London, VTEX does not have a large UK presence and will launch in Britain in Q1 of 2020, according to Gomide.
Earlier this year, VTEX purchased UniteU, an e-commerce platform based in the US. The company has bought a number of businesses in the past 10 years as it looks to gain greater reach and experience in specific markets. Gomide indicated that while this strategy would continue, it would be not be a use of the new funds.
"VTEX has three attributes that we believe will fuel the company's success: a strong team culture, a best-in-class product and entrepreneurs with profitability mindset," said Paulo Passoni, managing investment partner at SoftBank's Latin America fund. "Brands and retailers want reliability and the ability to test their own innovations. VTEX offers both, filling a gap in the market. With VTEX, companies get access to a proven, cloud-native platform with the flexibility to test add-ons in the same data layer."
You can see the (redacted) pitch deck which secured VTEX $140 million of funding here:
