RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – As of today, Uruguay has two unicorns. The pioneer dLocal is joined by the “technological shipping company” Nowports, a project started by two young people -one Uruguayan and one Mexican- when they met in the United States for their tertiary studies.
The technology company, which combines the classic area of logistics with information technologies, is now deployed throughout Latin America and has already set itself the goal of reaching the United States, Spain, and Hong Kong.
In 2017, Maximiliano Casal (30) and Alfonso de los Ríos (23) -current CEO of the company- coincided in a seminar focused on software development dictated by Stanford University in the United States. It was there that the friendship between the partners was born.
De los Ríos’ background in logistics from his family business was combined with Casal’s experience working in a logistics company. The young men wanted to innovate the industry, which “had remained the same for more than 70 years,” Casal told El Observador in December last year when his company had raised US$60 million in its Series B investment round. And so they did.
In 2018, Nowports, “the first and largest digital freight forwarder in Latin America,” was born, the Uruguayan entrepreneur asserted in dialogue with El Observador. “A traditional freight forwarder handles companies’ goods movement processes, including import and export. Nowports integrates technology to the entire procedure, with a platform that centralizes data and provides valuable information,” Casal explained.
THE UNICORN
But that project already “seems very far away,” said Casal, who is in charge of all the company’s operations from Montevideo. The technology company began to grow rapidly and, in the last week, received the news they had been waiting for a long time: Nowports managed to raise a Series C investment round of US$150 million. It allowed it to be valued at US$1.1 billion and thus become the new Latin American unicorn company.
According to Casal, the injection of this capital is financed by SoftBank Latin America Fund -one of the most prestigious funds in the field for financing startups-; Tencent; Tiger Global; Broadhaven Ventures; Foundation Capital; Monashees; Base10 Partners; Mouro Capital; and Soma Capital.
With this operation, Nowports expects to “expand financing services in Latin America, allowing companies to increase their imports and exports with fintechs (technology companies linked to the world of finance),” Casal explained. In addition, the digital freight forwarder intends to continue with its expansion policy and is studying opening more offices in countries where they are already present.
“This year, we plan to establish operational offices in countries with which we move large amounts of merchandise to streamline operations, such as Spain and the United States,” Casal advanced. “As for Latin American countries, we have our sights set on Argentina without a definite date. Part of this round will be earmarked for these initiatives, but the priority is to position ourselves better in the countries where we already work,” added the Uruguayan businessman.
NOWPORTS’ JOURNEY
The technology company raised its seed capital in June 2019, when it achieved an injection of US$8.6 million. An operation backed by Base10, Monashees, Y Combinator, Broadhaven, Soma Capital, Partech, and Tekton, allowing the startup to begin operations in Chile and Colombia.
Two years later, in July 2021, Nowports closed the US$23 million Series A. This investment was backed by Mouro Capital, Foundation Capital, Broadhaven Ventures, Monashees, Base10 Partners, and Y Combinator. Thanks to this amount, the technology company continued its expansion on the continent by starting operations in Peru and Brazil.
The Series B would arrive in December 2021 with an injection of US$ 60 million from Tiger Global, SoftBank Latin America Fund, DST, Mouro Capital, Monashees, Base10 Partners, Broadhaven Ventures, and Foundation Capital. With this backing, the company began operations in Panama and opened offices in Concepción (Chile) and Medellín (Colombia).
Now, with the Series C under its belt, Nowports is consolidating its position as a mature company with the capacity to bet on new products and even go public.
NOWPORTS TODAY
Nowports currently has a workforce of more than 500 employees. Most of them work in Mexico, Chile, and Uruguay. The company also has ten offices in seven countries: Mexico (Mexico City and Monterrey), Chile (Santiago and Concepción), Colombia (Bogotá and Medellín), Peru (Lima), Brazil (São Paulo); Panama (Panama City), and Uruguay (Montevideo).
In early May, Cecilia Martínez Vico took over as Nowports’ country manager for Uruguay, becoming the company’s first female country manager.
In addition to the country manager operating in the country, “two of the three C-level roles – a term coined to refer to a company’s most senior executives – live in Uruguay; this makes Nowports the second Uruguayan unicorn after dLocal,” said Casal, referring to Santiago García da Rosa, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, and himself, who serves as Nowports’ Chief Operating Officer.
“We are very excited about everything we have achieved with Nowports and the good reception from the market,” said Casal in a dialogue with El Observador after learning of the news. “It is again a validation from investors that we are building something solid and with a lot of growth projection,” concluded the Uruguayan businessman.
With information from El Observador