LatAm's Simetrik raises $55 million in Goldman Sachs-led funding round

MercadoLibre

21/02/2024 14:38

By Valentine Hilaire
       Feb 21 (Reuters) - Colombian-founded Simetrik, a startup
offering business-to-business services to streamline complex
financial tasks, raised $55 million in a funding round led by
Goldman Sachs  GS.N , which two executives said will be mainly
used to boost activity beyond the region.
    Simetrik's financial and accounting services are aimed at
companies that make more than $150 million in sales every year
and currently handles close to $150 billion in transactions
annually, the startup's Chief Executive Alejandro Casas and
Chief Operating Officer Santiago Gomez told Reuters in a video
interview. 
    The company operates in over 35 countries, but 80% of its
workforce is located in Latin America. 
    Simetrik has smaller-scale operations in Asia and Africa due
to the global reach of such clients as U.S.-listed dLocal
 DLO.O , and it is now seeking to expand further. 
    "One of the reasons Goldman Sachs invested in us is due to
our global reach. We already have clients with operations in
Asia, Africa and Europe, and we are implementing an aggressive
expansion as we have already proven our model works everywhere,"
Simetrik's Casas said.
    Falabella Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst and MercadoLibre fund
are among the other investors in Simetrik's Series B round. The
company declined to say what total value was implied by the
latest fundraising round.
    Mexican bottler and retailer Femsa  FEMSAUBD.MX , Brazilian
bank Itau Unibanco  ITUB4.SA  and Argentina's MercadoLibre
 MELI.O  are among the startup's clients.

 (Reporting by Valentine Hilaire; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
 ((Valentine.Hilaire@thomsonreuters.com;))