Tiger Global Global led a USD20.5m round for Nuvocargo, a Mexican freight transportation marketplace managing Mexico-US routes, at a reported USD180m valuation, with participation from The Flexport Fund, and follow-on from QED Investors and NFX. QED Investors led a USD12m Series A in April 2021; ALLVP and NFX led a USD5.3m seed round in 2020.
(Press Release) – Nuvocargo, the only all-in-one digital platform for US/Mexico trade, announced today it has raised $20.5M, led by Tiger Global Management, at a $180M valuation – nearly tripling the valuation from its most recent fundraise in April. Also participating in the round was The Flexport Fund, the COO of $8.7B LatAm startup Kavak, and existing major investors QED Investors and NFX. Prior Nuvocargo investors include David Velez, founder of Nubank (valued at $30B+), the cofounders of Deel ($5B), Rappi ($5B), Ramp ($4B), Loft ($3B), Y Combinator, among others. This additional funding brings Nuvocargo’s total raised to date to $37.8M since its launch in late 2019.
Nuvocargo announced its $12M Series A at a $70M post-money valuation in April 2021, and still had most of that cash in the bank when Tiger approached them. “We didn’t need the capital, but Tiger showed real conviction and moved fast with their term sheet even though we were not raising. We deeply respect their approach to investing and it was a great experience,” says Deepak Chhugani, Founder and CEO of Nuvocargo.
“We’re really ramping up our investment pace in Latin America and in logistics and supply chain. Supply chains globally are undergoing immense stress and there is a massive opportunity to build startups to improve this outdated trillion-dollar segment of the economy,” said John Curtius, Partner at Tiger Global Management. “We seek to back the category leaders in every space we invest in, and that’s what we saw in Nuvocargo for the trade corridor between the USA and LatAm.”
Since announcing Nuvocargo’s Series A in April, revenues have grown ~3x, and the team has grown from 30 employees to 80. Nuvocargo expects to grow the team to over 200+ employees across USA and Mexico and generate tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue in 2022. Nuvocargo is on track to close 2021 with 5x revenue growth vs. 2020.
Nuvocargo will use the funds to continue accelerating growth, expanding its product solutions in the industry, and strengthening its existing carrier and shipper network on both sides of the border. It is also developing new revenue streams, starting with add-on financial products for shippers and carriers, targeting the $125B+1 market for supply chain finance between the USA and Mexico.
Nuvocargo is also announcing today the launch of the first of a series of financial products it is building – QuickPay for carriers, which is essentially a cash advance product for the truckers in Nuvocargo’s marketplace. “We’ve been in a small private beta for a couple of months and the adoption has been extremely exciting; QuickPay for carriers has been growing processing volumes by 35% weekly and recently crossed seven figures in annualized transaction volume in just a few short weeks since launch,” explained Chhugani.