Why We Invested – Solvento

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have accounted for nearly 52% of Mexico’s GDP in recent years. Nowhere is this SMB emphasis more apparent than in Mexico’s $82 billion trucking industry, where carriers with fewer than 30 trucks make up the vast majority of the country’s 157K permitted carriers. With many of these businesses under tight working capital constraints, and few with access to digital payment or financial tools, there is a clear market white space across the country and broader Latin American region. Alongside this growing trend south of the border, we have seen additional indicators of a growing tech ecosystem disrupting the $460B US-Mexico cross-border freight market.

With this in mind, Ironspring Ventures is proud to announce we have partnered with Mexico City-based Solvento by leading the company’s $5M Series Seed round of funding to accelerate its fintech platform for the logistics industry in Latin America and US cross-border transportation.

Ironspring Ventures is joined by both logistics and fintech industry veteran investors including Dynamo Ventures (Pre-Seed lead investor), Quona Capital, Proeza Ventures, Susa Ventures, Zenda Capital, 9Yards Capital, and Supply Chain Collective. A group of strategic angel investors also participated, including Felipe Capella (CEO and Co-founder of Loadsmart), Craig Fuller (CEO & founder of Freightwaves), and Alexis Patjane (CEO and Founder of 99 Minutos).

I first met Solvento CEO, Jaime Tabachnik, at a Northwestern Kellogg startup competition (for which Solvento won the grand prize!), and in the spirit of “investing in lines not dots”, we were able to build a deep trust over the next year of strategic back & forth. After the entire Ironspring Ventures deal team had a chance to meet Jaime and his co-founders in Mexico City in person, it became clear the grit and determination the Solvento team would bring in solving the biggest pain points across payments in logistics in Mexico, as well as the greater Latin American and cross border market.

As mentioned above, Solvento is building the payment and credit infrastructure for the Latin American trucking sector benefiting all parties along the supply chain. It automates payments, finances invoices, and solves the liquidity needs of carriers, allowing them to focus on their operations and growth. To date, Solvento has granted more than $13 million cumulative loans, financed over 15,000 invoices, and helped more than 4,000 truckers improve their financial standing, collecting invoices whenever they need and giving them total certainty on when they will get paid.

Solvento´s successful business model has been recognized by FreightWaves in their FreightTech 100 ranking (2023) as one of fastest growing and most innovative companies in the global supply chain ecosystem.

“Carriers are the unsung heroes of this country … Without them our economy does not move. Solvento’s goal is to promote the growth of small and medium-sized carriers. We help both carriers and intermediaries to face their daily problems by simplifying and automating their payment and collection processes.” – Jaime Tabachnik, CEO of Solvento.

In addition to its sheer size, the Mexican trucking market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.91% through 2027, underlying a more urgent need for the industry to adopt technology. Further, an increasing number of regulations, including the latest dubbed ‘Carta Porte’ that is intended to combat smuggling via its electronic Bill of Lading supplement, are necessitating a greater need to digitize carrier operations.

Solvento’s platform, which can help thousands of carriers operate more effectively, is well positioned to provide a much-needed helping hand to these small businesses in the current macro-economic environment. Jaime and his team have impressed us with their rapidly growing traction, and as an Austin, Texas-based VC fund focused on supply chain, we’ve watched closely how accelerated cross-border trade between the US and Mexico will only further Solvento’s mission. Reach out to us, we’ll be in the fast lane!

Solvento Website: https://www.solvento.mx/

Solvento Hiring: https://solvento.notion.site/Solvento-Careers-d95be964222644d59573441bd25290c2

FreightWaves Exclusive: Solvento ‘leveling the financial playing field’ for Latin American trucking companies

Press Release: Mexico-Based Solvento Raises $5 Million Seed Round Led by Ironspring Ventures

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