The Brazilian startup Cayena announced a $17.5M Series A funding round led by Vine Ventures. The round follows on from the startup’s $3.5M in September last year.
Cayena is a B2B marketplace working to streamline the procurement process for wholesale food outlets in Latin America. The company supplies restaurants, bars, bakeries, hotels, and dark kitchens with fresh produce on demand.
Latin America’s wholesale food industry is worth over $100B and is yet still relies on slow, analog systems. Cayena is fixing this system with an online, real-time marketplace that connects suppliers with local outlets and offers next-day delivery.
“With Cayena, restaurant owners can browse through the inventory of the best suppliers […] We offer a greater assortment of products, free shipping, faster and more reliable fulfilment through asset-light logistics networks, and very competitive prices from a more streamlined supply chain,” said Pedro Carvalho, co-founder of Cayena.
The Brazilian startup also recently launched its Buy-Now-Pay-Later solution to help customers manage their working capital and offer greater flexibility.
“We launched with the mission of empowering small neighbourhood restaurants and food outlets with technology to address their largest cost lines and increase their profits,” said Raymond Shayo, co-founder. “We take the long term approach to solve underlying problems of procurement for traditional businesses by investing in technology and data-enabled credit offering.”
The Series A also included participation from MSA Capital, Picus Capital, Clocktower Ventures, FJ Labs, Endeavor Capital, and others.
Cayena will use the new funding to expand its BNPL service and continue growing its presence across Brazil. The startup plans to make new hires, specifically to the tech team, to help improve the product and user experience.
