Nuvemshop, Latin America’s Shopify, Raises $30M

Nuvemshop, a Latin American alternative to Shopify, has raised $30 million in a venture capital round as it tries to boost business, according to reports.

Kaszek Ventures and new lead investor Qualcomm led the new round, while FJ Labs, IGNIA, Elevar Equity and Kevin Efrusy participated, with Efrusy’s contribution coming from his personal wealth.

Nuvemshop was formed by Santiago Sosa, Alejandro Vazquez, Martin Palombo and Alejandro Alfonso and went through numerous trials and errors on the way to forming. The four intended to start a new marketplace software product for the Latin America region.

That didn’t take off — and the four founders instead began trying to solve the more simple issue of how to get small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) selling online. The company functions like Shopify in that it offers an alternative to Amazon and similar giants by selling the tools to make eCommerce sites for smaller companies.

Now the company boasts 65,000 businesses using its platform and sales of over $100 million every month.

The company also intends to launch its own payment processing and logistics gateway, which will help by giving more robust shipping options from bundling numerous lower demands into one system. And the company plans to offer a wide diversity of financial services, with new lending services based on revenue added to the payment processing it already offers, according to reports.

Brazilian regulators, after watching the digital markets of the world develop, decided they don’t want a closed-loop market or one dominated by established big tech names. That, according to Movile CEO Patrick Hruby, was Facebook‘s mistake in moving in with payment capabilities for WhatsApp.

Hruby told Karen Webster recently that the development of a new ecosystem of digital technology is moving quicker these days, and that everyone is responding to the effects of the pandemic and moving things online at a rapid pace.