The archive · Commerce & Marketplaces · Strategic decision · 2019–2026
Cayena's wholesale-food marketplace bet: R$300M Series B toward 500 Brazilian cities
Cayena bet Brazil's fragmented restaurant supply chain would digitize on one B2B marketplace; 5x annual sales growth earned a R$300M Bicycle-led Series B.
Cayena
What the business is
B2B wholesale marketplace connecting food suppliers with restaurants, hotels, bars and grocers: an online catalog of 50,000+ items, payment terms, next-day delivery via partner distributors, and embedded finance that guarantees supplier settlement.
Starting capital：R$300M (~US$55M) Series B led by Bicycle Capital, announced 2024-09-17/18, with Picus Capital, FEMSA Ventures, Globo Ventures, Canary, Astella, Endeavor Catalyst, FJ Labs, Clocktower and Norte Ventures; earlier rounds of US$3.5M (September 2021) and US$17.5M (early 2022); Distrito/InfoMoney put total raised at about US$89.5M as of March 2026.
How it started
Founded in 2019 in São Paulo by college friends Raymond Shayo, Gabriel Sendacz and Pedro Carvalho after separate careers in finance and private equity, Cayena started from a deliberate scan of industries: with consumer e-commerce well established, the founders identified food wholesale as a huge, poorly digitized B2B market. They built an asset-light marketplace that connects restaurants, bars, hotels, schools and caterers to suppliers while relying on existing distributors for physical delivery.
What happened
Cayena raised US$3.5M in September 2021 and US$17.5M six months later, then invested heavily in an embedded financial layer: AI underwriting that analyzes more than 1,000 data points per credit decision, more than R$2B in available credit, and approval rates the company said were 50% above industry average — the mechanism that lets it guarantee supplier repayment even if a buyer defaults. Sales reportedly grew about five times per year from 2021, and by September 2024 Cayena said it was heading for roughly US$200M in sales for the year while operating in about 100 Brazilian localities with a 50,000-item catalog and customers including Heineken, FEMSA, Accor hotels, Outback Steakhouse and Fogo de Chão. The R$300M Series B, one of Brazil's largest rounds of 2024 and led by Bicycle Capital (Marcelo Claure's fund), funds expansion into 500 additional Brazilian municipalities over the following two years, plus retail-media and data-monetization products for large consumer-goods suppliers.
How it ended up
Still running and scaling: Distrito's March 2026 unicorn report (covered by InfoMoney) lists Cayena as a Series B-stage potential unicorn with about US$89.5M raised, and no shutdown, exit or down round has been announced as of 2026-09-02.
Background
Cayena's bet is that Brazil's food-wholesale trade — worth an estimated US$200B a year across Latin America — would digitize through one B2B marketplace. Founded in São Paulo in 2019 by college friends Raymond Shayo, Gabriel Sendacz and Pedro Carvalho after careers in finance and private equity, the company deliberately chose the B2B side because consumer e-commerce was already saturated, leaving restaurants, bars, hotels and grocers still buying through fragmented, low-information distribution channels.
The model is asset-light: Cayena provides the catalog, ordering and payment terms while partner distributors handle delivery, and it embeds its own financial infrastructure so suppliers are repaid even when buyers default. That credit layer, built with AI underwriting over 1,000+ data points, carried the company from US$3.5M and US$17.5M rounds in 2021–2022 to sales that reportedly grew about five times per year since 2021 — roughly US$200M projected for 2024, serving about 100 localities with 50,000+ catalog items and customers including Heineken, FEMSA, Accor, Outback and Fogo de Chão.
In September 2024 Cayena raised R$300M (~US$55M) in a Series B led by Bicycle Capital, the fund built by ex-SoftBank executives including Marcelo Claure, with Picus Capital, FEMSA Ventures, Globo Ventures, Canary, Astella, Endeavor Catalyst, FJ Labs, Clocktower and Norte Ventures — one of the largest Brazilian rounds of the year — to expand into 500 more municipalities and build retail-media products. Distrito's March 2026 report still lists Cayena among Latin America's most likely next unicorns, with about US$89.5M raised, so the original bet is still being tested at larger scale.
What has to be true
- A dated, legible arc: founded 2019, US$3.5M and US$17.5M rounds in 2021–2022, ~5x annual sales growth, then a R$300M Series B in September 2024 and a 2026 potential-unicorn listing.
- The contrarian bet is concrete: digitize B2B food wholesale, not another B2C marketplace, and win by acting as the financial guarantor of each transaction.
- Traction is specific: about US$200M projected 2024 sales, 100 localities expanding toward 600, 50,000+ items, R$2B+ credit deployed, and named corporate customers.
- The outcome is in progress: still scaling as a potential unicorn, with no exit or shutdown reported.
What can be applied
In analog wholesale markets, the platform that also guarantees payment and owns transaction data wins the network effect — so it must become a lender and data business, not just a marketplace.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Cayena is still operating and scaling: it has not exited, shut down or reported a down round, and Distrito's 2026 unicorn report (covered by InfoMoney on 2026-03-04) still counts it among Latin America's 12 most likely companies to reach a US$1B valuation, with about US$89.5M raised at Series B stage. The company's expansion from about 100 to 600 Brazilian municipalities and its retail-media/data products for large food suppliers remain in progress.
Sources
- Startup de atacado Cayena acerta Série B liderada pela Bicycle, de Marcelo Claure
- Cayena capta R$ 300 milhões em rodada Série B com Coca-Cola
- Startups: Brasil lidera lista de potenciais unicórnios da América Latina em 2026
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