Rocket Internet’s Colombian ecommerce outfit Linio bags €25m investment

Colombian online retailer Linio has announced that it will receive an investment up to €25 000 000 (US$32-million) from the Santo Domingo Group. €12 500 000 (US$16-million) of this investment will come from Valorem, an investment vehicle in Colombia, managing a number of investment portfolios in the country.

Launched in spring 2012, Linio offers a variety of products online including beauty and fragrances, mobile phones, books and home electronics. The company is a part of Rocket Internet’s global startup empire. The German-based incubator is one of the giants of the ecommerce clone world. Its business model is to identify successful internet ideas and replicate them in other countries.

“We are excited to welcome Santo Domingo Group as our main partner and investor in Colombia. Both organizations share the same aspirations for ecommerce in Colombia, and we are now destined to build the most customer centric retail company in the country”, says Vagn Knudsen, General Manager at LINIO Colombia. “This investment, which comes on the heels of a previous investment in Linio by Tengelmann , JP Morgan Asset Management, and Summit Partners allows us to offer new categories of products, strengthen our operations, deliver even faster to our customers, and recruit the best talent.”

Michael Shoemaker, Managing Director at Linio Colombia meanwhile reckons that “Valorem’s investment in Linio is a testimony to Linio’s remarkable success to date as well as the Santo Domingo Group’s visionary investment strategies. They see that, with the right investment, Colombia and Latin America, as much as Silicon Valley, are capable of creating exceptional high-growth companies and outsized returns to investors.”

Andreas Mjelde, CEO for Linio Latin America, adds that “The investment in Linio Colombia by a renowned investor like Santo Domingo Group not only fortifies our position in Colombia, but is also a great testament to Linio’s position as the largest and most successful ecommerce company across Latin America, including our operations in Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.”

“Linio’s model is very attractive for us because of its profitability, the growth potential of the e-commerce market in Colombia and because we are investing hand in hand with a great strategic partner, Rocket Internet” said Carlos Arturo Londoño Gutierrez, President of Valorem.

The company, which has operations in México, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, says it will use the funds to fuel further growth in Colombia.