LatAm startup Mercately has successfully raised $2.6 million in a seed funding round, bolstered by strategic support from Techstars and Meta to scale its WhatsApp-based business commerce platform.
Strategic Partnerships Fueling Growth
The company participated in Meta’s “Future of Business Messaging Platform” program in 2022, a pivotal step that connected the founders with their lead investors: Inventus Capital Partners and SVQuad. According to CEO Remache, this marks the first investment in the Latin American region for both firms. Notably, the lead investors bring deep experience from the Indian market—a region with similarly high WhatsApp dependency—granting them a unique understanding of the platform’s commercial potential.
The WhatsApp Boom in Latin America
WhatsApp has rapidly evolved into a primary ecosystem for regional startups. The trend is gaining significant momentum; just last week, the Brazilian firm Magie secured $4 million in a seed round led by Lux Capital to facilitate bill payments via WhatsApp. Similarly, Félix Pago recently closed a $15.5 million round earlier this year to streamline cross-border payments on the messaging app.
Competitive Landscape and Market Positioning
Mercately faces a crowded field of competitors building business-centric services for the app. Major players such as private equity-backed Infobip and venture-backed Trengo are already competing for market share in customer engagement and communication. While the threat of these incumbents—or even Meta itself—rolling out native features remains, Mercately is banking on its specialized focus to maintain its edge.
Capitalizing on Deep Cultural Integration
The massive reliance on WhatsApp in Latin America, where over 90% of internet users utilize the platform, provides a fertile ground for growth. Although U.S. adoption has historically lagged, recent data shows it is growing, a trend Remache aims to leverage.
“I just think about how Shopify simplified web-based e-commerce in the U.S. We are simplifying WhatsApp commerce in LatAm,” Remache stated.
