The archive · Commerce & Marketplaces · Strategic decision · 2020–2025
Merama's LatAm brand-aggregator bet: unicorn in 12 months, $215M round in 2025
Merama bought marketplace-native LatAm brands betting several would become billion-dollar; it hit $1.2B in a year and raised $215M more in 2025.
Merama
What the business is
An e-commerce holding company that takes majority stakes in or launches digital consumer brands selling on marketplaces like Mercado Libre and Amazon across Latin America, then runs them with shared tech, supply chain and working capital.
Starting capital：$160M combined debt-and-equity seed and Series A, announced April 2021
How it started
Merama was incorporated in December 2020 by a team with operator pedigrees - Sujay Tyle (ex-Frontier Car Group CEO), Felipe Delgado (ex-Beetmann Energy CEO), Olivier Scialom (Petsy co-founder), Renato Andrade (McKinsey) and Guilherme Nosralla (Wildlife Studios). They reasoned that Latin America was the world's fastest-growing e-commerce region while most brands selling there were still nascent, and launched with $160M in April 2021 to buy and operate digital brands.
What happened
Funding arrived fast: a $225M Series B in September 2021 - touted as Latin America's largest at the time - at an $850M valuation, followed by a $60M follow-on in December 2021 that put Merama at $1.2B, 12 months after founding, with 180+ employees and about 20 brands in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. It began launching its own brands through an internal incubator (Merama Labs) and planned expansion into Argentina and the US. After the 2022-2023 market correction, the company consolidated: J.P. Morgan extended an $80M facility in April 2024 to refinance debt and fund portfolio growth, and Merama focused its attention on six core brands.
How it ended up
In April 2025 Merama closed a $215M equity-and-debt round at a valuation above $1B, drawing 3G founder Marcel Telles as a board observer alongside Advent, SoftBank, Valor, Balderton and Monashees ($45M equity), plus a $170M real-denominated revolving credit line from BTG Pactual, Citi and Itaú that refinanced the J.P. Morgan loan. CEO Sujay Tyle told Bloomberg the bet on LatAm e-commerce 'is paying off,' expecting about $100M in EBITDA for 2025 across six profitable companies, including Growth Supplements with annual revenue above $400M.
Background
Merama was incorporated in December 2020 by operators from Frontier Car Group, Beetmann Energy, Petsy, McKinsey and Wildlife Studios. Its bet was that Latin America's fast-growing marketplace economy - dominated by Mercado Libre and Amazon - would mint several billion-dollar consumer brands, and that a dedicated owner-operator taking majority stakes in nascent sellers could scale them faster than founders working alone.
Capital came quickly: a $160M combined seed and Series A in April 2021, a $225M Series B in September 2021 at an $850M valuation, and a $60M follow-on in December 2021 that made Merama a unicorn at $1.2B just 12 months after incorporation. By then it ran 180+ employees and about 20 brands across Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru, and forecast over $250M in merchandise sales for the year.
When the e-commerce boom cooled, Merama tightened rather than expanded: J.P. Morgan provided an $80M facility in April 2024 to refinance debt, and management narrowed the portfolio to six core companies. In April 2025 the company raised $215M - $45M in equity from Advent, SoftBank, Valor, Balderton, Monashees and new investor Marcel Telles, plus a $170M credit line from BTG Pactual, Citi and Itaú - at a valuation above $1B, refinancing the J.P. Morgan loan.
As of April 2025 Merama was still scaling, with CEO Sujay Tyle expecting about $100M in EBITDA for the year and pointing to Growth Supplements, its biggest sports-nutrition brand, whose annual revenue had grown past $400M after three years under Merama. The outcome contrasts with many roll-ups of the same era: it survived the rate shock and kept its unicorn status by concentrating capital on fewer, larger winners.
What has to be true
- Timing: Latin America's marketplace commerce was growing fastest globally while most local brands stayed small, so the consolidation gap was real.
- Unlike Thrasio and Perch, Merama bought fewer brands and aimed for one category leader per segment, keeping operations focused enough to add real value.
- It raised huge capital early - unicorn status in 12 months - which funded working capital and supply-chain upgrades that pure sellers could not afford.
- Discipline after the 2022-2023 correction: cutting to six core brands and refinancing debt let it reach about $100M expected EBITDA while staying above a $1B valuation.
What can be applied
A roll-up only works when the market under it is still growing: Merama bought few category leaders in LatAm's marketplace boom, then cut to six best brands and refinanced when capital tightened.
Aftermath
As of April 3, 2025, Merama was a private e-commerce holding company valued above $1B, running six core brands across Latin America after more than 20 acquisitions since 2020. Its two marquee assets were Growth Supplements, the region's largest sports-nutrition brand with annual revenue above $400M, and Mexican multi-channel retailer Mercadazo. With about $100M EBITDA expected in 2025 and a fresh $170M credit line from BTG Pactual, Citi and Itaú, CEO Sujay Tyle described the founding bet - that e-commerce would be Latin America's future - as paying off.
Sources
- E-commerce aggregator Merama gets its horn after just 12 months in business
- Merama secures $80M in financing from J.P. Morgan
- Merama se convierte en nuevo unicornio latinoamericano de e-commerce
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