:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bloomberglinea/MBYOABTENNDCZOSGSJ7PCOECLU.jpg "Cubbo founders, Josu Gurtubay and Brian York")
Miami — Cubbo, an e-commerce fulfillment platform that operates in Mexico and Colombia, today announced the close of a $4 million seed round led by San Francisco-based SV Latam Capital. Other investors include Braigiel Brothers, and Brazil’s BluStone, along with notable angel investors such as the founders of Wonder Brands, Merama, 99 Minutos, Justo and Loft.
The company makes it easier for local and international brands to sell their products direct to consumers. It’s not an ecommerce platform like Amazon or Mercado Libre, but instead just handles the packing and shipment of goods for independent brands. The company stores the goods in its local warehouses, so when items are ordered, they can be delivered as soon as the same day. Cubbo was recently featured on Shark Tank Colombia.
“We accept orders until 5pm, and can still get them packed and shipped the same day,” said Brian York, CEO and co-founder of Cubbo. York is a serial entrepreneur. His last company, Liftit, a trucking platform based in Colombia, raised $39 million and is still running. He has built numerous companies before these two.
Cubbo’s business model fills a void in LatAm, because it’s a region where the U.S. Postal Service has often failed to deliver good service, often taking numerous weeks to deliver goods, if they get delivered at all. “The USPS international service works well for places like Western Europe or Japan, but badly for Latin America. It’s not USPS’s fault; the post office is only as good as its partner in the destination country, and Latin America is dealing with bankrupt and dysfunctional postal authorities that provide highly unreliable service,” according to AJ Hernandez of Supply Chain Brain. This is where Cubbo picks up the slack.
While Cubbo is a Colombian company, it first launched in Mexico earlier this year, and recently expanded operations to Colombia. York was born in Colombia, but grew up in the U.S.
The company has 60 vendors onboard, and most are from Europe and the U.S. York said that he decided to launch Mexico first, because his clients expressed interest in shipping to Mexico before other Latin American countries. Cubbo then expanded to Colombia as a result of many of those same clients wanting to expand their businesses.
“We ship non-perishable products and nothing larger than a shoe box,” said York. “I’m very much a niche focused entrepreneur,” he added. The company makes money by charging a fee to the vendor of about $8/order in Mexico.
York said he anticipates the company will be cash flow positive by Q1 of 2022.
An interesting facet of Cubbo is its real estate play. “We strategically find space in the city and repurpose it,” said York. For example, one of their warehouses was previously an abandoned gym.
The money from this round will be used to build out the Colombia operation, grow the leadership team and continue supporting Mexico. The company plans to expand to Brazil and Chile in 2022.
