Startup’s Formula for Beating Amazon in Brazil Rests on Chinese Tactics

When Diego Dzodan quit Meta Platforms (then known as Facebook) as head of Latin America three years ago to found his own startup in Brazil, he sought inspiration from Chinese startups, like a growing number of emerging market entrepreneurs. Instead of looking to Amazon, he modeled his business on China’s Pinduoduo, a hyperfast growing e-commerce app that offers bargain-basement deals and free shipping.

It’s working. The startup, an online marketplace called Facily, is now close to raising more than $100 million at a pre-money valuation of $1 billion—quadruple its $250 million valuation in July, making it one of the region’s fastest to hit that milestone, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. New investor Goodwater Capital is leading the round, which also includes existing shareholders Tiger Global Management, Glade Brook Capital, GGV Capital and Monashees. Before the current round, the startup had already raised about $370 million in total.

Meanwhile, transaction volume on Facily, which mainly sells groceries and is expanding into gadgets and clothes, skyrocketed to 124 million reais (about $23 million) in October from just 570,000 reais (about $104,000) a year earlier, Dzodan said in an interview with The Information