Arielle Zuckerberg

Apr 12, 2022

Riogrande is an e-commerce aggregator that bundles small-business brands from Latin America. The startup raised $12 million from YC and angels like Justin Mateen and Arielle Zuckerberg. "Some people call us the pigs who find the truffles," its cofounder Tono Mandly told Insider. Mexico City-based Riogrande is an e-commerce aggregator — meaning it buys businesses intending to grow them on marketplaces like Amazon — focused specifically on Latin American home goods, kitchen, and beauty brands. The startup recently closed a $12 million seed round led by Y Combinator and Wollef, with participation from angel investors like Justin Mateen and Arielle Zuckerberg. While the market for US Amazon aggregators is so overflowing that it's brought consolidation and even some layoffs , the Riogrande cofounders Ivan Amelong, Tono Mandly, and Federico Naides don't consider their company "just" an e-commerce aggregator. "Early 2020 we realized Latin America is the fastest going e-commerce market in the world,"  Mandly said, "but the market is still very immature." Wealthier consumers often choose to purchase pricier, higher-quality goods, often from the US, while middle-class and poor consumers favor lower-priced goods that might be imported from China, Mandly explained. This presents an opportunity for his startup to find local and affordable Latin American brands. More often than not, Riogrande helps to build the e-commerce business of such companies from scratch rather than just swooping in once they are already successful on Amazon and acquiring them. "Some people call us the pigs who find the truffles," Mandly said. The trio founded the company formally in 2021 and was quickly accepted into the startup accelerator Y Combinator's winter batch. They were hesitant to join after the program went virtual but were glad that they followed through, citing YC as the main reason they were able to raise a large seed round, Mandly said. Check out the 12-slide pitch deck Riogrande used to raise $12 million:  A slide in Riogrande's pitch deck. Riogrande