MercadoLibre recently announced that they plan to raise to $ 1 billion in common stock offers. PayPal also agreed to invest another $ 750M in ordinary shares. Dragoneer will buy $ 100M in perpetual preferred shares of Series A. These investments are contingent upon the closing of the public offering.
MercadoLibre will use the funds to expand its e-commerce platform, improve logistics and invest in new technology solutions that will establish the company as a region’s leader and end-to-end financial payments.
“Over the past 20 years, we have invested heavily in the development of the pre-eminent e-commerce and FinTech ecosystem in Latin America,” said MercadoLibre CEO Marcos Galperin in a press release. “We are very pleased to welcome these investments that will allow us to significantly accelerate our growth. We hope to accelerate our leadership in e-commerce and payments and foster financial inclusion in Latin America as a result of our partnership with a world leader in the industry such as PayPal. “
New regional competitors
MercadoLibre processed more than $ 12B in gross merchandise volume in 2018 and its payment system, MercadoPago, grew 70% in the last year. MercadoPago is one of the largest digital payment platforms in the region and continues to innovate through the QR code payment systems that debuted this year.
As e-commerce grows in the region, MercadoLibre seeks to maintain its position as the leading online retailer in Latin America, competing with the recent interest of Amazon and Alibaba in the region.