Ritmo, a platform offering financial solutions to online vendors, has announced the closing of a $200 million debt financing round led by i80 Group and Avellinia Capital, and which is one of the largest rounds of financing raised by a business dedicated to providing credit for e-commerce companies in Europe and Latin America.
U.S. fund i80 Group has already committed more than $1 billion in credit to fintech and proptech companies.
“With the proliferation of the e-commerce market ecosystem in recent years, we are excited to partner with Ritmo in its mission to provide an innovative financing solution to e-commerce entrepreneurs who opt for non-dilutive growth capital rather than selling their business,” Asher Hochberg, CEO of i80 Group, said of the financing.
For his part, Christoph Pfundstein, co-founder of Avellinia Capital, one of Europe’s leading providers of tailored capital solutions in the fintech lending, e-commerce and mobility sectors, said that this flexible multi-jurisdictional and multi-currency funding line will help Ritmo to grow.
To date, the startup founded in 2021 by Raimundo Burguera, Iñaki Mediavilla, Iván Peña and Prageet Sharma has raised $225 million in debt and equity investment. The company plans to invest 2 billion Mexican pesos ($99.8 million) in Mexican e-commerce platforms, demonstrating its commitment to the local market by offering loans of up to 60 million pesos ($2.9 million) to accelerate the growth of e-commerce companies without compromising their cash flow, and without personal guarantees, quickly and easily.
The new funds will be used to support the growth of Ritmo, which reports a 12-fold growth rate over the last seven months, with more than 600 loans dealt out in Mexico, Spain, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
This growth is taking place in an environment in which e-commerce is booming. According to the Online Sales Study 2022 by the Mexican association of online sales (AMVO), e-commerce in Mexico grew by 27% last year, which places it among the fastest growing markets in the world.
Raimundo Burguera, CEO and co-founder of Ritmo, said when announcing the funding round, “this will reinforce Ritmo’s position as one of the fastest growing major financing and payment platforms on a global scale”.
“We are convinced that, thanks to our efficient algorithm-driven technology, we can take full advantage of all the data to offer the best growth capital solution to Mexico’s e-commerce vendors and help them improve their operations, and drive the growth of their online businesses,” said Jorge Carvallo, managing director for the Americas at Ritmo.
The funds will also guarantee the availability of capital to finance more than 2,000 clients over the next 18 months in key countries in Latin America and Europe. The round will contribute to Ritmo’s global expansion strategy and strengthen its Mexican operation.
