E-commerce fulfillment platform Cubbo raised a pre-series A round led by Brazil’s Gerdau Next Ventures, which is owned by steel giant Gerdau, as well as SV Latam Capital, Gaingels and Community Access Fund. The amount of the round will not be disclosed due to the policies of one of the investors.
The investment will allow the startup to strengthen its presence in the Brazilian market after the acquisition of DedaLog, a Sao Paulo-based logistics firm, last March.
“The investment in Cubbo will reaffirm Gerdau Next Ventures’ efforts to invest in the mobility and logistics sectors in Latin America, thus supporting a business in a relevant and growing market, where there are many opportunities,” says Mateus Jarros, head of Gerdau Next Ventures.
Most of the funds will be used to consolidate Cubbo’s presence in Brazil, which is seen as a key market on the global e-commerce map, by opening new urban warehouses in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and to grow the team.
Also, the startup plans to use the investment to increase Cubbo’s presence in Colombia and Mexico. In the Andean country, the startup will put into operation a new 3,000-square-meter warehouse in Bogota and expand its operations in Cali, Medellin and Barranquilla, with smaller warehouses. In Mexico, meanwhile, Cubbo will use part of the funds to grow the engineering team.
“We want to start working at full capacity in Brazil. Our biggest customers (e-commerce brands in the United States and Europe) want to expand to Latin America, and all of these customers have Brazil as their top priority to start doing direct business,” explains Brian York, CEO and co-founder of Cubbo.
Following this pre-Series A round, Cubbo expects to raise its Series A in the second quarter of 2022 to expand its operations in Monterrey (Mexico), Medellin (Colombia), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), and begin operations in Chile.