Colombian on-demand delivery startup Rappi secured an investment round of more than $500 million led by US-based investment firm T.Rowe Price, which has raised Rappi’s valuation to $5.2 billion.
The fundraising also had participation from Baillie Gifford, Third Point, and Octahedron, as well as Singapore’s state-owned fund GIC and SoftBank. Rappi is also backed by DST Global, Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sequoia Capital.
T.Rowe Price had already made a $300 million Series F investment round in Rappi in September 2020, which at the time pushed the startup’s market value to $3.5 billion.
“Our main goal is to support the rebound of the regions where we operate and help them emerge even stronger from the difficulties of recent times. We have always focused on being a trusted partner to millions of people and tens of thousands of businesses by innovating to create new services, such as fast delivery through ‘dark stores’ – Rappi Turbo – and financial services,” Rappi said in a press release.
Rappi was born as a super app, according to Fernando Vilela, CMO at Rappi in Brazil. In 2015, when Rappi debuted, there were only two buttons on the app: one for shopping at neighborhood markets and another for “anything,” literally. “I like to joke that [the ‘anything’ button] was our big source of insights,” said Vilela, in an interview with LABS.
From the “anything” button and much talk with users, Rappi has grown to the current 14 app verticals, such as pharmacy, pet shop, delivery in up to ten minutes, and Rappi Bank, the latest of which was launched in January of this year.
“Our global group of extraordinary investors trust our unique model, believe in the strength of our regional market, and support our vision to actively contribute to economic development by boosting local commerce,” the unicorn company said.
According to Rappi, the additional capital “reinforces the company’s vision and allows it to continue to execute on planning, drive exceptional growth and meet customer needs.”
The startup is present in more than 250 cities across nine countries in the region and became a unicorn in 2018 after a $200 million round from DST Global. But the biggest contribution to Rappi happened in March 2019, $1 billion from SoftBank, the largest investment received by a Latin American startup to date.
