Miferia, an online Mexican wholesale marketplace, today announced a $7 million seed round co-led by Bain Capital Ventures and Tiger Global, with participation from Canary, Latitud Ventures, and Asymmetric Capital Partners.
Miferia operates a curated wholesale marketplace that connects independent retail shops in Mexico with domestic brands in categories such as cosmetics, food and beverage, and home décor. The platform features thousands of products from over 500 brands, with over 30 new brands being onboarded each week.
“The e-commerce boom in Latin America has led to a proliferation of digital brands and improved last-mile logistics for consumers,” said Tariq Musa, founder and CEO of Miferia. “But these developments have not yet benefited the region’s independent retailers. Miferia’s mission is to empower these small and medium-sized businesses across Mexico and ultimately Spanish-speaking Latin America.”
Despite the rapid growth in e-commerce, over 90% of retail in Mexico still takes place in its 2 million physical stores. This market remains completely unserved by digital tools, with less than 1% of B2B transactions having moved online. Miferia enables Mexican shopkeepers to digitally consolidate their offline relationships and helps them grow by expanding their product selection and providing access to improved credit terms.
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Meanwhile, brands in Mexico also face a variety of hurdles: offline brands forgo significant margin to traditional distributors and must deal with the burden of cash collections, while online direct-to-consumer brands lack access to the lion’s share of industry sales that take place in physical stores. Miferia offers Mexican brands an improved channel to connect with independent retailers across the country.
“The movement of wholesale trade from offline to online venues is a global phenomenon, and we believe that online B2B marketplaces will eventually replace physical tradeshows and traditional distribution channels across most product categories and geographies,” said Merritt Hummer, partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “We are delighted to partner with Tariq to establish Miferia as the dominant platform for wholesale trade for independent retailers across Latin America, starting in Mexico.”
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