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Mouro Capital Leads $16M USD Funding Round in Digital Freight Forwarder Nowports
July 1st - 2021
1 July 2021 – PRESS RELEASE
Mouro Capital, a venture capital fund focused on fintechs and adjacent businesses and backed by Banco Santander, has invested in Mexican digital freight forwarder Nowports’ $16 million Series A funding round.
Nowports is Mouro Capital’s first investment in the logistics space, an industry with promising innovation opportunities and strong ties to financial services.
There is a clear need for a digital transformation in supply chains. Nowports’ solutions are aligned with this objective — providing tools for clients to track their shipments, centralizing historical shipping information, and allowing access to financial information with ease, ultimately giving clients the ability to make informed business decisions.
Since its launch, Nowports has raised a total of $24 million and has opened offices in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay. In its third year of operation, Nowports is raising capital to solidify its most important routes, expand its logistics and financial services, and promote its added value as a digital freight forwarder for Latin American companies.
Nowports closed a $16 million Series A funding round, led by Mouro Capital, with participation from Foundation Capital, as well as existing investors, including Broadhaven Ventures, InvestoVC, Monashees, Base10 Partners, and Y Combinator.
With this new capital, Nowports will continue to support Latin American companies in streamlining their import and export processes and improving the visibility of their supply chains.
Chris Gottschalk, Mouro Capital, said: “We are thrilled to partner with Nowports as they continue to deliver on their mission to digitize international trade. The Nowports platform brings transparency and technology to a global client base, and we look forward to working with the team to accelerate its growth trajectory.”
Alfonso de los Rios, co-founder and CEO of Nowports, said: “This investment allows us to continue strengthening our position in the region, not only in Mexico but in the four countries where we already have our own offices, as well as expanding our team in China. Our mission goes beyond shipping cargo. Today, we already automate insurance policies and provide financing to our clients. In this way, we allow our clients to import and export more, which helps them grow their businesses and improves the foreign trade conditions of the region.”
Maximiliano Casal, co-founder, and COO of Nowports, said: “Slow, inefficient, and manual processes in international logistics are disassociated from today’s technological world. Customers are looking for solutions that can improve their logistics processes adapted to current challenges of international trade.”
Nowports
Nowports is the first digital freight forwarder in Latin America, combining its knowledge in logistics and technology to ship merchandise efficiently, transparently, and safely. Through its technology platform and expert team, Nowports clients obtain fast routes and rates, track the path of their cargo real-time, access digitized documents and reports, and communicate with everyone involved in a collaborative space. Nowports was founded in December 2018 by Alfonso de los Rios and Maximiliano Casal. Nowports has more than 100 employees, a multidisciplinary team, and active offices in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay, as well as a contact base in Washington, USA. It was accelerated by Y Combinator and recognized as among the Linkedin Top Startups 2020 of Mexico and the 30 Promising Business of Forbes Mexico. https://nowports.com
Mouro Capital
Mouro Capital is a venture capital firm backing entrepreneurs who are shaping the future of financial services. With $400 million in assets under management and supported by Banco Santander, Mouro invests across the fintech value chain in early to growth stage start-ups across Europe, North America and Latin America. Mouro has invested in c.40 companies such as iZettle (acquired by PayPal), Kabbage (acquired by American Express), Creditas, Curve, Ripple, Tradeshift, Trulioo and Upgrade.
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