Nocnoc, which facilitates cross-border e-commerce between Latin American merchants and global sellers, raised $14 million in Series A funding.
PayPal Ventures led the round and was joined by Mouro Capital, Quona Capital, Caravela Capital, Broadhaven and Ignia. This gives the company $22 million in total venture-backed funding to date.
Ilan Bajarlia, Joaquin Colella and Diego Szilagyi started nocnoc in 2018 to enable businesses to sell in Latin America through 16 marketplaces with a potential reach of nearly 500 million consumers, CEO Bajarlia told TechCrunch. The company is headquartered in Uruguay with offices in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, China and Spain.
Latin America’s cross-border sales grew 44% in 2022, the market is valued at $382 billion and expected to grow annually at a rate of 25% through 2025, according to Americas Market Intelligence.
“Cross border e-commerce is growing faster than local commerce in the last five years,” Bajarlia said. “People are keen to buy products that they can’t buy in their local market, so very large marketplaces from the world have been growing their share in Latin America, specifically, Chinese and U.S.-based marketplaces.”
Online merchants upload their product catalog to nocnoc’s platform and then can start selling on marketplaces, including Amazon, Mercado Libre, Americanas, Carrefour, Walmart, Magazine Luiza and Coppel. Nocnoc manages the product listings across all of those marketplaces and creates marketing campaigns for the products. The company also handles communication with consumers, delivery logistics, cancellations and returns.
When it comes to payments, nocnoc typically pays sellers every 15 days, in their local currency, even if the product has not yet made it to the buyer. This is compared to the 40 to 50 days that sellers typically wait to collect payment for a sale, Bajarlia said.
Nocnoc’s concept has caught on. The company introduced over 180,000 exclusive products to the region from more than 1,200 international sellers. In the past 12 months, gross merchandise volume grew 3x amid the company adding seven new marketplaces, expanding in Mexico, Colombia and Chile. All of that has made nocnoc “[become] the largest cross-border store in Latin America,” Bajarlia said.
The new funding will go toward helping its business and its customers grow and expand into Latin America. New features will include additional fulfillment centers and an “Advanced Payments” product that will pay sellers even faster, an average of three to five days, with cancellations and returns covered.
“We have been growing a lot in diversifying our consumer offer so everything related to which products we are selling have improved,” Bajarlia said. “We’ve improved our technology to understand what’s the best-selling product in Latin America, understanding supply and demand, understanding the elasticity of each product and what new categories we can introduce. As such, we are connected to the leading marketplaces in Latin America, and are usually the only or largest cross-border enabler for any consumer, for example in Brazil, willing to buy from an international seller.”
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Nocnoc opens door to quicker setup of cross-border e-commerce in Latin America by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch
