Movile, Latin America’s leading mobile commerce platform, announced today it has raised USD40 million in Series F funding from Naspers through its Naspers Ventures division.
Naspers, is Movile’s strategic partner and majority shareholder of Movile since 2008, led the round with participation from Innova Capital, an investment fund focused on high growth companies with expertise in technology. Movile has 15 offices around the world and its mobile products – such as PlayKids, available in more than 100 countries – and services reach more than 70 million people each month. The new funding will support further growth providing the capital required for additional geographic and product expansion.
“With more than a decade of technology development and expertise, Movile has become a mobile leader, transforming the way ecommerce, services and content are delivered to the consumer,” said Larry Illg, CEO of Naspers Ventures. “Moving forward, we believe Movile is uniquely positioned to continue driving new mobile technology innovation for the consumer, both in region and elsewhere.”
Over the last three years, Movile has invigorated the Latin American technology ecosystem, investingmore than $100 million to build a suite of industry-leading mobile commerce apps and services across the delivery, logistics and streaming media markets.
“Movile’s growth in Brazil and beyond is impressive, but the solid business underpinnings they use to manage and integrate brands, extracting synergies, while not losing sight of delivering profitable operations is what sets them apart”, explained Veronica Allende Serra, Founding Partner of Innova Capital. “Such combination makes Movile stand out as a very attractive investment with long term sustainable upside.”
The new funds will be used to accelerate the continued growth of its suite of apps and services in Latin America and beyond, as well as enter the ticketing industry through a $4 million investment in Sympla, a Brazilian online ticketing and event management company. The addition of Sympla to Movile’s investments marks the continuation of its growth across a broad spectrum of mobile commerce markets. Cofounded by David Tomasella, Marcelo Cartacho and Rodrigo Cartacho, Sympla is a full-service platform that offers ticket sales, finance, social media and audience analytics tools. Since 2012, it has sold more than four million tickets to over 50,000 events held in about 2,000 Brazilian cities.
“We add strategic value far beyond a capital injection. Our synergies are well proven in mobile, marketing, management and financial processes, which together make us a valuable partner,” explained Fabricio Bloisi, CEO and cofounder of Movile. “We look forward to working with the Sympla team and helping them become an industry leader.”
The funding follows on the heels of other notable milestones for the company. iFood, Movile’s food ordering service, registers around 1.7 million orders monthly and its growth reached 143% last year. The company stands as the market leader in Brazil and other countries in Latin America, which represents a potential 75% of the $10B food delivery market in the region.
Movile’s Rappido, is boosting Brazil’s shipping and logistics sectors and continues to grow internationally. Movile’s award-winning subscription-based children’s entertainment and education platform, PlayKids, has over 6 million monthly users as well as a rich mix of leading content spanning both original shows and beloved series from Disney and Sesame Workshop.
