EconomyFinancial99 Minutes grows its expansion in Latin America and...

99 Minutes grows its expansion in Latin America and raises its bet without emissions

It is a well-known history that the irruption of the pandemic accelerated the growth of electronic commerce in Latin America. The novelties, in any case, go through the different strategies chosen by the companies in the region to be able to ride that wave. One of those that managed to make the jump on time is 99minutes. This firm focused on last-mile delivery, the one that links merchandise shipments from transportation centers to the final destination, increased its turnover by no less than 260% last year compared to 2019. Its growth in Latin America and its commitment due to deliveries without emissions they led him to raise 40 million in June with the investment funds Prosus Ventures and Kaszek,

The key to success was meeting the primary objective of reducing the times and costs of each delivery. With this goal achieved in Mexico, the firm founded by Alexis Patjane in 2013 set itself the next objective of bringing its sustainable transport model to South America by incorporating electric vehicles into its fleet. Along these lines, after having received a capital investment from the Engie Factory incubator and accelerator, 99minutes embarked on regional expansion. The first step was taken in May 2019, when it acquired the Chilean firm MuvSmart, which already had a fleet made up entirely of electric vehicles.

By the end of that year, the march took even more pace when 99minutos was selected to participate in the program Y Combinator, one of the most important accelerators of the world startups. That allowed him to raise $ 5 million in a first round of investment. “This money was intended to continue with the regional expansion plan, but the pandemic broke out,” says David Berdichevsky, commercial director of 99minutos Chile, in Santiago. “E- commerce began to grow at incredible rates and we had to use these funds raised in that first round to scale the business and strengthen it in the face of what we were receiving as demand from our clients.”

With 25% of deliveries in the region now carbon-free, the 99-minute offer attracted the interest of companies such as Natura, L’Óreal Nespresso, Decathlon and MercadoLibre, which carry out ambitious internal sustainability programs. “At the beginning of this year we started a project with 99 minutes to incorporate electric vehicles to the fleet: we started with five and today we already have 18, which helps us reduce our carbon footprint,” says Juan Pablo Santos, MercadoLibre’s transportation manager. Chile, in Santiago. “They managed to adapt very quickly to our model in the Chilean market: we have a great variability of the delivery volume from one day to the next, and absorbing that flexibility is not for everyone.”

These advantages amid the boom in electronic commerce caused by the pandemic not only allowed 99 minutes to register a jump in its level of deliveries and billing, but also to set new objectives for international expansion. “In September of last year we entered Colombia and Peru at the same time, with smaller operations but aiming for the regional clients that we already have in Chile and Mexico to allow us to achieve a soft landing in those markets,” says Berdichevsky.

With new openings planned in Argentina and Ecuador, in addition to Panama and Costa Rica, the idea is to consolidate in the markets they are already in before crossing more borders, says Berdichevsky. “Mexico continues to be the most important market for 99 minutes with 75% of the business, but the e- commerce boom is here to stay and the objective is to continue growing in new markets.”

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