A Columbian-based delivery start-up, Rappi has acquired funds amounting to over $500 million which has been valued at $5.25 billion in a Series F. The round was led by T. Rowe Price, the company announced late Friday. Moreover, other participations in the new funding event involved Baillie Gifford, Third Point, Octahedron, GIC, and SoftBank. The previous investments include DST Global, Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sequoia Capital.
As per Crunchbase, this new funding brings the start-up total raised since its 2015 inception to over $2 billion. In the present scenario, the country has operations in nine countries and more than 250 cities across Latin America. Its last raise was a $300 million funding round in September of 2020.
Rappi when it first started focused on delivering beverages, as asserted by According to the Latin American Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (LAVCA) but since then it has expanded into meals, groceries, tech goods, and medicine. The company also has a provision of cash withdrawal feature, enabling users to pay with credit cards and then receive cash from one of Rappi’s delivery agents. Today, the company says its app allows consumers to “order nearly any good or service.”
In addition to its previous ways, it mentions that users can get products delivered in less than 10 minutes, can access financial services, as well as ‘whims,’ and ‘favors.’ ” Whims enable users to order anything available in their coverage area. Favors offer an array of custom services, such as running an errand, going to the hardware store, or picking out and delivering a gift. The two products allow users to connect directly with a courier.
This company was launched in 2015 by Simón Borrero, Sebastian Mejia, and Felipe Villamarin who graduated from Y Combinator the following year. A16z’s initial investment in July 2016 was the Silicon Valley firm’s first investment in Latin America, according to LAVCA.
In January 2020, Rappi was reported to have laid off around 6% of its staff, or roughly 300 employees.
