Colombia’s Merqueo bags $50M to expand its online grocery delivery service across Latin America

Merqueo offers more than 8,000 products, including fresh foods, packaged goods, home essentials, beverages and frozen products. It currently operates in more than 25 cities in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil and has over 600,000 users. The market opportunity in Latin America is massive considering that online grocery sales only represent just 1% of the market –– far lower than in the U.S., EU or China, for example.

Early-stage venture capital fund Newtopia VC launched Monday with $50 million to invest in tech startups based in Latin America. Mayer told TechCrunch that he sees a great moment happening in Latin America around global venture capital firms — like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank —making bets in the region, especially targeting later-stage investments.

CDPI Emerging Markets

Ghanaian agri-tech startup DigiExt is helping farm cooperatives grow via a variety of tech-based platforms and then assisting them in selling their produce to processing companies and export agencies. The startup gathers data by satellites and drones, weather information and soil sensors to disseminate relevant production information to smallholder farmers at the right time in a cost-effective manner.

CDPI Emerging Markets

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.

CDPI Newsletter

CDP Institute

News

Colombia’s Merqueo bags $50M to expand its online grocery delivery service across Latin America

More News

Newtopia closes first fund of $50M to invest in LatAm startups

Ghana’s DigiExt introduces data-driven farming for smallholders

TikTok Ban Set to Become Law