Nocnoc raises $14m to expand ecommerce in Latin America

PayPal Ventures led the series A round

Nocnoc, a facilitator of ecommerce between global sellers and Latin America, has secured $14m in series A funding, led by PayPal Ventures. 

The Uruguay-headquartered fintech will use the capital to expand its reach into new markets and open additional sales channels.  

It will also be used to enhance nocnoc’s fulfilment solution for retailers and expand its payments support.  

Mouro Capital, Quona Capital, Caravela Capital, Broadhaven and Ignia also participated in the round.  

Nocnoc’s solution allows global e-retailers to upload their products to its platform and sell across 15 marketplaces in the region, including Amazon, Mercado Libre and Carrefour.  

Latin America is one of the fastest growing ecommerce markets in the world, growing at an annual rate of 25%.  

But businesses that attempt to expand into region face several obstacles, including understanding market trends, building a reputation and accepting local payments.  

Nocnoc says it addresses these cultural, logistical and financial obstacles for merchants, allowing global brands and online retailers to sell their products.  

Ilan Bajarlia, co-founder and chief executive officer of nocnoc, said: “Marketplaces make up 80% of ecommerce in Latin America, but are highly fragmented.  

“There is no ‘winner takes all’ player, like Amazon or Walmart in the US, or Taobao or JD in China. In this sense, listing, managing and selling on all these platforms at the same time is hard and costly.  

“Nocnoc obscures this fragmentation by allowing international sellers to quickly and easily grow their sales in Latin America while preserving their ability to focus on their core sales channels.” 

On PayPal Ventures’s investment, partner Ian Cox Moya said: “We see significant opportunity in cross-border trade and believe nocnoc is uniquely positioned to help sellers win in Latin America.”  

In Latin America, sellers typically wait an average of 40 to 50 days to collect payment for a sale, which affects their growth, nocnoc says.  

To address this, Diego Szilagyi, co-founder and chief commercial officer of nocnoc, explained: “Typically, nocnoc pays sellers every 15 days, even if the product has yet not arrived at its final destination.  

“To reduce friction in cross-border payments and improve sellers’ performance, we have developed our Advanced Payments product, which accelerates seller payouts to just 3 to 5 days, with cancellations and returns covered.” 

Image: nocnoc  

Josh Poyser Josh Poyser is an editor at FinTech Intel. He has written about fintech for several years and appeared at FinTech Connect 2023 on the 'Unlocking Success: The Art of Fintech PR' panel.