Online payments provider PayPal has agreed to invest $750m in Latin American e-commerce technology firm MercadoLibre.
Image: PayPal headquarters. Photo: Courtesy of PayPal.
Separately, an affiliate of Dragoneer Investment Group has also agreed to invest $100m in MercadoLibre. PayPal and Dragoneer are contingent upon the closing of public offering.
MercadoLibre plans to use the proceeds from the investment, to expand its e-commerce platform and strengthen its logistics infrastructure and to invest in solutions that can solidify its position in e-commerce and end-to-end financial technology and payments solutions.
Established in 1999, MercadoLibre is an e-commerce company in Latin America. The company has six integrated e-commerce platforms including MercadoLibre, MercadoPago and MercadoEnvíos and offers technology solutions that allow businesses and individuals to buy, sell, announce, send and pay for goods and services over the internet.
Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin said: “Over the past 20 years, we have heavily invested in developing the preeminent e-commerce and FinTech ecosystem in Latin America. We are excited to welcome these investments which will allow us to significantly accelerate our growth. We look forward to accelerating our leadership in ecommerce and payments and foster financial inclusion in Latin America as a result of our alliance with a global leader in the industry such as PayPal.”
PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman said: “Digital commerce in Latin America is experiencing tremendous growth and MercadoLibre is well-positioned for continued leadership. We’ve been impressed with the digital commerce and payments ecosystem Marcos and his team have built. We see great opportunities to integrate our respective capabilities to create unique and valuable payment experiences for our combined 500 million customers throughout the region and around the world.”
Last November, PayPal completed the acquisition of Hyperwallet in a transaction worth $400m. The deal will strengthen PayPal’s payout capabilities and enhance its ability of offering integrated payment solutions suite to ecommerce platforms and marketplaces around the world.
With the closing of the deal, Hyperwallet CEO Brent Warrington will join PayPal and will continue to lead Hyperwallet. He will report to Braintree, vice president and general manager Juan Benitez.