SoftBank leads financing round in Brazil home goods retailer MadeiraMadeira

[SAO PAULO] Japan's SoftBank Group Corp has led a US$110 million financing round for Brazilian online home goods platform MadeiraMadeira, according to a statement on Tuesday.

SoftBank's fresh capital for MadeiraMadeira comes from its US$5 billion Latin America fund, launched in March, which has been directed to sectors ranging from banking and real estate to home goods and delivery services.

Investment firm Light Street Capital is also participating in the funding round, alongside SoftBank and Flybridge Capital, which is already an investor in MadeiraMadeira.

The Brazilian retailer, which offers around a million home furnishing products, said it will use the proceeds to invest in technology, logistics and customer services.

MadeiraMadeira operates like US furniture retailers Wayfair Inc and Build.com. Its investors include Niraj Shah, chief executive and founder of Wayfair, and Christian Friedland, founder of Build.com.

By selling furniture to customers without holding inventory, the company aims to keep down capital costs. When a client buys a table at its website, for instance, that order goes directly to the furniture maker, which has its own inventory. Currently, MadeiraMadeira manages products in 450 third-party distribution centres.

Daniel Scandian, chief executive and co-founder of MadeiraMadeira, told Reuters the company plans to expand operations beyond Brazil in Latin America, although it will first concentrate investments in the region's largest economy.

A former professional racing driver, Scandian joined his brother Marcelo and Robson Privado to launch MadeiraMadeira after his family's flooring business went under in the 2009 global financial crisis.

MadeiraMadeira, which has just reached break-even, has already raised US$38.8 million in three previous financing rounds with investors such as venture capital firms Monashees, Kaszek and Flybridge.

Lazard Ltd advised MadeiraMadeira in the most recent financing round.

REUTERS