Business

Promising to invest BRL 2.5 billion by 2022, Mexican unicorn Kavak launches operations in Brazil

In Brazil, Kavak will compete with other platforms such as Volanty – which has just been acquired by Creditas –, Instacarro, and Karvi

Kavak in Mexico — Photo: REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Reuters

27.Jul.2021 13:19 BRT
UPDATED 14:26 BRT

Ler em português

The announcement comes three months after the startup received a contribution of US$ 485 million;
At the time, Kavak had already said that it would use part of the resources to land in Brazil, a country that the company points out as the third largest automotive market in the world in terms of sales volume, behind only the United States and China.

Kavak, the secondhand car purchase and sale platform that became Mexico’s first unicorn last year, announced the official start of its operations in Brazil on Tuesday. The company lands in Latin America’s largest economy promising to invest BRL 2.5 billion to transform the country into its main market by 2022.

According to the president of Kavak Brasil, Roger Laughlin, the resources will be used to build a stock of up to 100,000 vehicles in the country until next year and to expand the startup’s team, which should double in size, to 1,000 employees by December. In the coming months, the company also intends to open dozens of small centers within brmalls, Iguatemi, and Multiplan shopping centers across the country, besides inaugurating a mega automotive center in Barueri, Greater São Paulo.

“Brazil will be our main market very quickly,” said Laughlin, Venezuelan executive co-founder of the company, in an interview with Reuters.

The announcement comes three months after the startup raised a US$ 485 million round. At the time, Kavak said that it would use part of the resources to come to Brazil, a country that the company points out as the third-largest automotive market in the world in terms of sales volume, behind only the United States and China.

In addition to the mechanical and legal inspection of the vehicles, with a two-year warranty, Kavak also offers its own credit lines and those of partner banks to customers.

In Brazil, Kavak will compete with other platforms such as Volanty – which has just been acquired by Creditas, the Brazilian fintech unicorn that also launched a vertical operation for secondhand car sales –, Instacarro, and Karvi, from Argentina. All of them have also received tens of millions of reais in contributions from international investors.

(Translated by LABS)