NEW YORK, April 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nuvocargo, the only all-in-one digital platform for US/Mexico trade, announced today it has closed a $12M round of Series A funding led by QED Investors alongside new investors including David Velez (Founder/CEO, Nubank), Michael Ronen (Branded/SoftBank, who led Flexport’s $1B Series D), FJ Labs, Clocktower, Karim Atiyeh (Founder/CTO of Ramp), Raymond Tonsing (Caffeinated Capital), Satya Patel (Homebrew), Sebastian Castro (Founder, Kushki), and more. Existing investors NFX, ALLVP, MAYA Capital, Magma Partners, One Way Ventures, Ride Ventures, and others also participated. This round brings Nuvocargo’s total funding to $17.3M.
Nuvocargo will use the funds to accelerate its product roadmap and ramp up hiring. It is also developing a series of add-on financial products for shippers and carriers, targeting the $125B+1 market for supply chain finance between USA and Mexico - offerings such as cargo insurance, working capital financing, trade financing, inventory loans and more.
“While on the surface Nuvocargo appears to be primarily a logistics company, our vision has always been to build an all-in-one digital platform to simplify trade for businesses across the Americas,” said Deepak Chhugani, Founder and CEO of Nuvocargo. “One of the biggest components of that vision is deeply rooted in the movement of money and payments for the international supply chain. Nuvocargo will soon offer products and services that help truckers, SMBs, and businesses across countries with multiple pain points that go beyond the actual movement of goods.”
“QED recognized that as truly transformative companies like Nuvocargo brought much of the traditionally disjointed and offline supply chains online, there would be huge opportunities for embedded financial solutions in the US-Mexico trade corridor,” said Lauren Morton, Partner, QED Investors.
“Nuvocargo took something that wasn’t even possible two years ago and made it essential today. Deepak and team are building a platform that not only automates the logistics of moving goods across the border, but for the first time enables offering best-in-class financial solutions to a massive market that has long been ignored. We have been investing in US and Latin America fintechs for the past 15 years, and we’re excited to combine our global fintech expertise with Nuvocargo’s strong technical talent, local expertise and vision for disrupting international trade in a way that we know is critical for success.”
James Currier, General Partner at NFX who co-led Nuvocargo’s seed round says, “Deepak and team continue to beat all the goals and projections. Nuvocargo is building a world-class team and operation in a market that is eager for software-driven solutions with network effects, making it more efficient for all participants.”
Antonia Rojas, Partner at ALLVP who co-led Nuvocargo’s seed round said, “Nuvocargo launched just 18 months ago, and expects to generate tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue in 2021, its second full year in business. We’ve been impressed by how the company has stayed responsive to customer needs and grown even when the economy got tough; we are confident they will continue this path of growth leveraging the 600B USD trade route within US & Mexico.”
Nuvocargo plans to use the funds to continue investing aggressively in hiring world class talent across Silicon Valley, the logistics industry, the US and Mexico. Specifically, it will invest more aggressively in engineering, product, design, analytics and marketing while continuing to invest in sales & operations. Today the team consists of 35 employees in the US and Mexico, and that number will likely grow to 100+ in the coming 12 months.
2020 Nuvocargo milestones include:
- Grew revenues by 25x
- Grew its customer base by 9x, landing new clients such as Calidra Group, Howden and Land & Sea
- Grew its employee base by 5x, adding industry veterans from companies like Dropbox, Goldman Sachs, Transplace, Redwood, MIT, Harvard, and other leading US/Mexico logistics brokers
- Opened new offices to support growth, in Mexico City, Mexico and Laredo, TX
Additionally, earlier in March, Nuvocargo announced a platform upgrade with new tracking features available in English and Spanish that provide shippers with enhanced visibility and the ability to track and monitor their cargo shipments all in one place.
“We’ve seen overwhelming customer demand and revenue growth since launching,” said Chhugani. “This funding will enable us to keep investing in our company’s software infrastructure and on hiring to satisfy that demand. Additionally, we’re excited to use these funds to launch new financial products we’ve been piloting with both shippers and carriers to better serve the needs of our stakeholders beyond purely moving freight and to become their all-in-one solution for US/Mexico cross border trade.”
About QED Investors
QED Investors is a global leading boutique venture capital firm based in Alexandria, Va. It is focused on investing in early stage, disruptive financial services companies in the U.S., U.K., Latin America and Southeast Asia. QED Investors is dedicated to building great businesses and uses a unique, hands-on approach that leverages our partners’ decades of entrepreneurial and operational experience, helping their companies achieve breakthrough growth. Notable investments include Credit Karma, ClearScore, Nubank, SoFi, Avant, Remitly, GreenSky, Klarna, QuintoAndar, Loft, Konfio, Creditas, AvidXchange, Current and Mission Lane.
About Nuvocargo
Nuvocargo is the only all-in-one digital platform for cross-border trade offering freight forwarding, customs brokerage, cargo insurance and supply chain financing. It combines powerful technology with an exceptional team of experts to seamlessly integrate end-to-end movement of cargo in a single platform. Nuvocargo is modernizing a $2T market that has yet to experience real digitalization, empowering shippers with unparalleled visibility, efficiency and support. Run by a fully bi-lingual team, Nuvocargo's unique position at the intersection of technology, logistics, the US and Latin America, contributes to growing revenues 35 percent month over month since beginning operations in late 2019. Nuvocargo is backed by QED Investors, David Velez, NFX, ALLVP, and the world-renowned startup accelerator Y Combinator, among others. Learn more about the nuvo way at https://www.nuvocargo.com/en or follow @nuvocargo.
Media Contacts:
Gina Rezendes
617-640-9278
gina@big-swing.com
Ashley Marshall
Director of PR and Communications, QED Investors
518-577-9984
ashley@qedinvestors.com
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1 Nuvocargo internal calculation