eCommerce Startup Melonn Raises $20M

Colombian eCommerce fulfillment startup Melonn has raised $20 million in Series A funding, the company announced in a press release Friday (Feb. 4).

The Bogota-based firm said in the release it will use the funding to build its tech and product teams to strengthen its platform and develop adjacent products, such as embedded FinTech.

In addition, Melonn said in the release it wants to scale up its commercial capabilities and increase its network of urban fulfillment centers to offer efficient same- and next-day fulfillment across more cities in Latin America.

“Melonn is solving a massive pain point for the huge, fast-growing and highly underserved market of eCommerce SMBs,” said CEO and Co-Founder Andres Gómez in the release. “We’ve been able to build a diverse and synergic team of extremely talented individuals with deep expertise in eCommerce, logistics and tech, which has enabled us to build a winning product with strong market fit.”

See also: FinTechs Play Big Role in Helping Consumers Shop Across Latin America

Gomez founded Melonn in November 2020 with a group of friends, the release stated. The company’s tech platform guides sellers through a “simple and highly automated onboarding process” before connecting their different eCommerce channels. From there, sellers ship their inventory to one of Melonn’s urban fulfillment centers close to their end-consumers.

“Melonn quickly takes care of the picking, packing and delivery, so that end-consumers receive their orders on the same or next day, also taking care of returns,” the company said in the release, adding it also works with transportation services to reduce shipping times and costs.

For years, Latin America was considered a late adopter of eCommerce. But things have changed in the past few years, especially in the wake of COVID. As PYMNTS has noted before, the region is the fastest growing eCommerce market on the planet, with approximately 300 million digital buyers, a figure expected to jump over 20% in the next three years.

Read more: 2021 Was the Year of Ampliacion