CommerceTech platform smartBeemo receives $6 million in funding to support Latino online businesses
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smartBeemo received $6 million in funding to continue their mission of supporting the growth of Latin eCommerce businesses.
Founded in 2014, smartBeemo is a CommerceTech platform dedicated to assisting Latin individuals in launching and growing their own ECommerce stores. Through education, community engagement, access to solutions, and direct access to China, the company has served over 100,000 paying users to date. They are striving to play a significant role in e-commerce in Latin America.
Targeting entrepreneurs, professionals in business with digital presence, and marketing students, smartBeemo offers education solutions through online courses and diplomas, virtual and face-to-face events, digital and printed books and business consultancies.
On February 12th, SmartBeemo announced their pre-Series A funding round that closed Dec 2023. The company was able to raise $6 million with Redwood Ventures leading the round. The round included nine different investors including existing Redwood Ventures, Simma Capital, and New Ventures, but also new investors Aluna Partners, EaglePoint Capital, Angel Hub, Impact Ventures, Promotora Social México, and RGMA Holdings de Multifamily EPC.
MIchael Edery, CEO
The Latin American-born company began in Colombia, South America and now has a Miami presence having gone through the Endeavor ScaleUP program. ScaleUp is an initiative by Endeavor, a global organization that supports high-impact entrepreneurs in 40+ countries. Endeavor ScaleUp is a cohort-based initiative that equips high-growth founders in Florida with the network and resources to gain clarity on their path to scale.
Endeavor ScaleUP participant, Michel Edery, Co-founder & CEO of smartBeemo, wanted to leverage the Spanish language for the good and bringing a ray of hope for the Latin Americans. In a world where English is in a class of its own, there are people who are still having a hard time understanding the language, and in turn, it acts as the major barrier in their learning process. Michel recognized this problem and developed smartBeemo only for such people, breaking the language barriers that affect their learning.
In an Endeavor Miami podcast episode, Michael shared his experience growing his company, the insights he’s gained by being part of an entrepreneurial community, and the happiness that comes from doing what he loves. He spoke of how he belives that humans are always building stating that “We as human beings always need to work on something and build something. There are people who build gardens [his neighbor] and there’s people who build companies. I build companies.” You can listen in to the full conversation here.
Michael had previously shared how business is booming in Latin America and that the pandemic forced people to look to the internet allowing them the knowledge of how easy it can be to connect and even launch their own ecommerce businesses. He stated, “Over here, there is a bridge between e-commerce and digital marketing major due to the language barriers as all the great content out there is in English. But now I think people are starting to learn and understand more about social media, e-commerce and I can now see thousands of people launching their businesses.”
According to statista.com, Latin America harbors more than 300 million digital buyers, a figure forecast to grow by more than 20 percent by 2027.
Although e-commerce adoption in this part of the world is still lower than in other regions, online retail sales in Latin America were estimated at nearly 168 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 and set to account for almost 20 percent of total retail by 2026. On a regional level, Brazil and Mexico are vying for the lead, each accounting for close to 30 percent of the Latin American e-commerce market. However, other economies such as Argentina, Colombia, and Peru have been drawing increasing attention due to their swift growth.
To learn more about smartBeemo, visit www.smartbeemo.com