The $85 billion business market of e-commerce in Latin America is assured to double in the upcoming three years and this will also increase the consumer demand to receive properly packaged orders on time. E-commerce leaders like Amazon and MercadoLibre have refined the technology of logistics and delivery for the market and with that, many start-ups have also developed a similar technology to permit e-commerce businesses of any and all sizes to have an equal foothold.
The latest shipping technology company based out of Argentina, clicOH is attracting venture capital funding, in a round led by Tiger Global in Series A funding where the company raised $25 million. The round saw the participation of JAM Fund and also the existing investors Vast VC, Flexport and FundersClub. The company has a total of $33 million in funding after the latest investment since the company was started in the year 2018 by a team of Emiliano Segura, Juan Martin Altamirano and Agustin Novillo Saravia. The company operated majorly in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Mexico. The proprietary technology of clicOH allows the sellers to track their shipment through a dashboard with key indicators and clear traceability.
clicOH serves its customer companies of all sizes from Red Bull to much smaller merchants of Shopify.
According to the CEO of the company, Novillo Saravia, Latin America was not ready for the sudden surge in e-commerce in terms of infrastructure after the pandemic. E-commerce remains infiltrated in some regions where only 5% of retail sales were made in the year 2021 online, even after the city is one of the major growing regions around the globe. However, this would be a big driver for the company to attract more funding.
He also added that one of the major problems of logistics when it comes to e-commerce can only be tackled with efficiency and data. The asset-light model of the company allows them to fully invade the countries where clicOH operates, in order to understand the behaviours of the consumers and keep the inventories of the company according to the demand of the consumers and speed up the shipping timings for better service. The increasing demand has enabled clicOH to grow significantly since the launch of its current business model in the year 2020. Delivering a package every 20 seconds, clicOH serves its customer companies of all sizes from Red Bull to much smaller merchants of Shopify.
The company was started in the year 2018 by Emiliano Segura, Juan Martin Altamirano and Agustin Novillo Saravia.
The number of packages processed at clicOH is growing with a good rate of 30%, so far this year and the first-quarter revenue was almost six times over the same time in the year 2021, according to the CEO. The number of employees has increased from 40 to 175 over a year.
The company falls under the top list of start-ups that are raising funds and are developing the e-commerce infrastructure of the Latin American market. For instance, companies like 99minutos raised a capital of $82 million in its Series C funding for the expansion and offerings of pick-up and drop-off facilities. Skydropx is also raising capital to develop the company with a delivery system with over a hundred options for customised shipping. clicOH has shared its plans to utilise the latest investment for the expansion of the company in Latin America and also to enter the markets of Columbia and expand the logistics network of the company.
