21/10/2020
Latin Lawyer
Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP in New York and San Francisco, L O Baptista Advogados in São Paulo and Harneys in the Cayman Islands have helped Brazilian e-commerce company VTEX raise US$255 million in a funding round led by SoftBank, making the start-up a tech unicorn.
Morrison & Foerster LLP in Miami advised Japan’s SoftBank. Paul Hastings LLP in São Paulo advised Brazilian asset manager Gávea Investimentos, while Brazil’s Demarest Advogados advised US investor Lone Pine Capital, both of which also participated in the Series D funding round. The deal closed on 24 September.
Pinheiro Neto Advogados is understood to have provided local counsel to SoftBank, but Latin Lawyer could not confirm this prior to publication.
The funding round also attracted interest from Brazilian asset management group Constellation, US hedge fund Lone Pine Capital and US venture capital group Tiger Global, among others.
The latest investment brought VTEX’s valuation to US$1.7 billion. Together with previous funding rounds, the start-up has earned a unicorn status. VTEX obtained a US$140 million capital injection by SoftBank and Gávea last year. L.O. Baptista advised VTEX on that deal too, while Paul Hastings helped Gávea.
VTEX offers an e-commerce platform for retailers to sell their products online, with a presence in 17 countries, including Brazil, Mexico and Peru. The start-up has over 1,500 clients using its platform, including big names like US retailer Walmart and Japanese conglomerate Sony.
The start-up will use the proceeds of the latest funding round to grow its global portfolio of software as a service (SaaS) products, as well as to develop its commercial cloud service.
A slew of Latin American start-ups has become unicorns in recent months. In September, digital payment company dLocal became Uruguay’s first unicorn with a US$200 million investment, while used-car start-up Kavak earned its status as the first Mexican unicorn in early October.
Counsel to VTEX
Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP
Partner Adan Muller and associates Hilary Adams, Luiz Bihari and Tyler Mann in New York, and partner Mark Foster in San Francisco.
L.O. Baptista Advogados
Partners Daniela Zaitz Kolar and Patricia Agra Araujo, and associate Fernanda Pereira in São Paulo.
Harneys
Partner Christopher Hall and associate Alexandra Clynes in George Town.
Counsel to SoftBank
Morrison & Foerster LLP
Partners Randy Bullard and Juan Delgado, and associate Julia Danforth in Miami.
Counsel to Gávea Investimentos
Paul Hastings LLP
Partner Jon Kellner and of counsel Andrea Campos in São Paulo.
Counsel to Lone Pine Capital
Demarest Advogados
Partners Luciana Tornovsky, Bruno Drago, and Carlos Eduardo Orsolon, and associates Andre Novaski and Debora Sejtman in São Paulo.
Disponível em: https://latinlawyer.com/article/1234453/brazilian-start-up-vtex-becomes-a-unicorn-after-investment-round
