- The company announced an investment of $ 190 million led by SoftBank and Dynamo;
- The funding round, the fifth received by the company based in Curitiba, was accompanied by Flybridge and Monashees, who were already partners;
- The new market value was estimated by MadeiraMadeira itself after the investment round.
The website for selling household articles MadeiraMadeira announced that it received an investment of 190 million dollars led by SoftBank and Dynamo, becoming 2021’s first Brazilian unicorn (startups valued at $1 billion or more).
The announcement comes 16 months after the retailer, who sells furniture and home furnishings online, has received another $110 million contribution and was leveraged by the business’s acceleration in 2020, with confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic driving e-commerce in the country.
“We will have to anticipate for this year investments that were initially planned for 2022,” the president and co-founder of MadeiraMadeira, Daniel Scandian, told Reuters. The executive said that sales made through the platform grew 120% in 2020, compared to an 80% expansion a year earlier. He did not provide revenue details from the company.
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According to the executive, in addition to the quarantine, other aspects related to the pandemic, such as the payment of emergency aid, the redirection of family expenses, and the accelerated expansion of the real estate market, also help explain MadeiraMadeira’s growth.
“And with the investments we had made since the end of 2019 in expanding the logistics structure, we were able to meet an increasing number of orders with shorter delivery times,” said Scandian.
Throughout 2020, MadeiraMadeira, founded about 10 years ago, tripled the number of distribution centers to the current 15. The one in Jundiaí, in the state of São Paulo, it’s strategical for the company’s plans of implementing next day deliveries in the greater area of the city of São Paulo as of February. Other centers are expected to open this year.
On another front, the platform intends to expand the portfolio of private label products, now with about 400 items, and increase the chain’s number of physical stores (currently there are 9), besides acquiring competitors and grow its presence in Latin America. The company currently has around 1,300 employees.
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The funding round, the fifth received by the company based in Curitiba, was accompanied by Flybridge and monashees, who were already partners. The new market value was estimated by MadeiraMadeira itself after the investment round.
The new round also marked the arrival of VC firms Velt Partners, Brasil Capital, and Lakewood Capital, whose experiences as investors in publicly traded companies, indicate MadeiraMadeira’s next steps. Scandian said that MadeiraMadeira’s debut on the stock exchange is something planned for a few years from now.
Co-writen and translated by LABS
