MercadoLibre to Boost Investment in Brazil by 48%

MercadoLibre reportedly plans to increase its investment in Brazil by 48%, from 23 billion reais (about $3.7 billion) in 2024 to 34 billion reais (about $5.8 billion) in 2025.

The eCommerce and FinTech firm will focus its investment on logistics, technology, marketing and increasing its staff in the country by 14,000, to reach a total of 50,000, Bloomberg reported Monday (April 7), citing an emailed statement from the company.

MercadoLibre’s investment in Brazil follows its announcement that it plans to invest $3.4 billion in Mexico, which is the company’s second largest market behind Brazil, according to the report.

The firm has not disclosed its plans for Argentina, where it was founded more than 25 years ago, the report said.

MercadoLibre is Latin America’s most valuable company, with a market capitalization of $92 billion and operations in 18 countries across the region, per the report.

The company reported in February that it saw double-digit growth year over year in unique active buyers and items sold across its marketplace, along with momentum in its credit card business, during the fourth quarter.

The number of unique buyers rose by 24% to 67.3 million individuals and the number of items sold was up 27% to 525.5 million.

During a Feb. 20 conference call with analysts, MercadoLibre Chief Financial Officer Martin de los Santos said, in discussing the credit card business, “having a solid credit card offering is critical to our ambition of being the largest digital bank in Latin America, and leveraging our unique competitive advantages in underwriting and distribution. So we’ll continue investing in our platform to capture these opportunities even if some time they put short-term pressure on margins.”

It was reported in December that MercadoLibre, which has its roots in the eCommerce world, aims to become Latin America’s dominant digital banking force by gleaning data from its customer base of tens of millions of consumers to offer products like loans and insurance.

Brazil has emerged as the global leader in digital engagement among its consumers, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report, “How the World Does Digital.”

The report found that among the 11 countries studied, Brazil had the highest number of activity days — days consumers engaged in core activities of digital life, such as banking, shopping and entertainment.