It’s pay-day for Latin America’s largest mobile commerce platform. Brazilian IT company Movile earned $55 million in venture capital funding to shore up its efforts in online-to-offline (O2O) commerce, according to an announcement. Innova Capital, an investment fund that has invested in companies including Accera and TradeForce, lent $35 million to the fundraising round.
Online-to-offline commerce refers to transactions that start on a computer or mobile device and end in the real-world. Uber and Groupon are just two of the many companies that have parlayed this business model to great success. Movile’s latest funding will mainly be directed toward iFood, a food delivery service that Movile invested in and later acquired, according to CEO Fabricio Bloisi.
“We have been very successful in the food delivery business,” Bloisi told NBC News. “Now with this bigger investment, we want to push iFood much further.”
Prior to Thursday’s announcement, Movile had already helped grow iFood’s mobile footprint from 7 percent of its order to over 60 percent. This year, the delivery service is expected to deliver over 3.5 million meals across Latin America.
Movile’s plans for O2O commerce don’t end with iFood though. Bloisi said his company is also looking into other areas where a mobile app would work, including ordering taxis, buying movie tickets and booking hotels. Currently, the company’s most successful app is PlayKids, an interactive tool for kids that is the highest grossing children’s mobile app worldwide.
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— Jacob Passy