The origin of Mercado Libre
The origin of Mercado Libre is a story that’s familiar to many Latin Americans: seeing opportunities in a region with many untapped aspects.
The founder and president of Mercado Libre is Marcos Galperín, an Argentine entrepreneur. Galperín was previously employed at YPF in the finance sector and sponsored by the company to pursue his MBA.
However, the inception of Mercado Libre occurred as part of a step-by-step plan while he was working towards his MBA degree at Stanford University in the United States.
While studying at this university, Repsol acquired YPF, and the finance department where Galperín worked was closed. This situation, in Marcos Galperín’s words, “was the perfect excuse for me to say: well, now I have no choice.”
From that point, Galperín initiated a three-month research process with input from other professors, analyzing the possibility of creating an online marketplace in Latin America.
His finance professor, Jack McDonald, helped him secure his first investor, John Muse.
“There were no local venture capital firms, and the international ones didn’t even want to look at Latin America,” Galperín recalled in The Economist.
Upon completing his MBA, he dedicated himself to establishing the company, which was officially launched on August 2, 1999, and quickly expanded to the following countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
-The origin of Mercado Libre-
The origin of Mercado Libre involved two rounds of financing, the first in November 1999 and the second in May 2000.
These rounds included the following partners: JP Morgan Partners, Flatiron Fund, Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, Goldman Sachs, Fondo CRI, Banco Santander Central Hispano, and GE Equity.
In Galperín’s words to Time Magazine, “We had to create everything from scratch.” This included logistics for e-commerce and infrastructure for digital payments.
Some of our international competitors, like eBay and Amazon, grew from the beginning.
Interestingly, we began to grow at a much faster pace after our 21st anniversary. We are democratizing finance and commerce in Latin America.
It’s an overnight success story that has taken more than two decades.
The origin of Mercado Libre emerged with innovative ideas, much like Amazon and Alibaba, but with a Latin twist. Mercado Libre is the leading e-commerce platform in Latin America.
On the platform, small and medium-sized businesses, producers, manufacturers, importers, entrepreneurs, retailers, wholesalers, individuals, dealers, among others, offer their products.
To sell on Mercado Libre, it is necessary to register on the site and complete a sales form with all the product details and photos being offered.
Also read: Here is the biography of John Leguízamo.
