nocnoc: sellers from outside the region are entering Latin American e-commerce massively and without friction

Connecting a digital seller from the US or China accustomed to Amazon or Aliexpress with a consumer in Brazil or Mexico through a set of marketplaces might seem simple to a beginner. However, it is very complex. It involves negotiations, contracts, technological integrations, different product selections, customer support in various languages, customs and consumer protection regulations, logistics, payments, and more.

This complexity and difficulty presented a significant opportunity that nocnoc identified and is now addressing, with support from several leading venture capital funds in Latin America and globally. Before nocnoc, the enthusiasm of Chinese and American sellers for selling in Latin America quickly faded when they realized that the region is not a single unit but many countries, each with different currencies, regulations, and needs. Additionally, there is no dominant marketplace; instead, there are global (Amazon, Walmart, Carrefour), regional (Mercado Libre), and national (Americanas, MagaLu, OLX, Coppel, Liverpool, Linio, etc.) marketplaces, all of which are relevant.

Each marketplace required understanding the jurisdiction and laws, a negotiation, a contract, a technological integration, and more. Each country required support in the local language, consumer protection and retraction right regulations, customs rules, foreign trade regulations, currency convertibility, and so on. When all of this was added up, the magic simply didn’t happen.

For the marketplaces, this meant they couldn't meet all their customers' needs and had to look elsewhere for certain categories of products. Therefore, nocnoc represented a significant solution for both out-of-region sellers and marketplaces. For the sellers, it resolved everything with one contract, one integration, a selection of relevant products, and outsourced management of customer support, logistics, payments, FX, customer support, consumer protection, and more. For the marketplaces, it provided a set of products and categories that their customers couldn’t access, made available without friction: increased sales and, equally important, greater relevance and customer retention.

Ilan Bajarlia , Diego Szilagyi Russo , and Joaquin Colella , three extraordinary entrepreneurs from IC Ventures' portfolio, identified a complex and difficult problem that urgently needed solving. With great execution capability and years of relevant experience, they built a rapidly growing company that now works with a portfolio of marketplaces such as Amazon Brazil and Mexico, Mercado Libre, Americanas, Walmart Mexico, Carrefour Brazil, Coppel, and Magalu, among others. They have successfully introduced over 180,000 products from more than 1,200 international sellers. And they are just getting started.

In the same year of its creation, nocnoc received support from the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII). Shortly after, it began its venture capital financing journey, raising over $22 million. The first fund to invest was IC Ventures. In 2020, nocnoc strengthened its entry into Brazil with an investment from Olist (supported by Softbank), followed by a 2022 round led by Quona Capital and Moura Capital, and another in 2023 led by PayPal, with participation from Mouro Capital, Quona Capital, Caravela Capital, Broadhaven, and Ignia.

In this interview, Ilan Bajarlia shares nocnoc's current state, its focus areas, its differentiating values, the challenges it faces, and an overview of marketplaces in Latin America.

How would you define the current moment for nocnoc?

It’s a year of growth built on more solid foundations. Today, we understand our customers and the niches that work best for us. We’ve validated what is known as “product-market fit.” Now, it’s about investing more and better. Our focus is on overcoming challenges to unlock even faster growth.

So, you’ve cleared many uncertainties…

An entrepreneur always faces uncertainties. In our case, as we are inventing something new, it's even greater. But over the years, we’ve cleared hundreds of them. As we understand the market better, we adjust our value proposition to make it more powerful. Macro factors obviously affect us: high-interest rates, inflation, consumption. Many variables impact our business.

But once you understand the model—in our case, seamlessly connecting a digital seller from the US or China with a consumer in Brazil or Mexico through marketplaces—you have a very solid foundation.

And once you also understand the pricing and product distribution model, the optimal way to ship and respond to consumer inquiries, which categories work, and how to bring in those digital sellers optimally in terms of cost efficiency, you enter a completely different phase.

Now, the question is, once we’ve taken it from 1 to 10, how do we take it from 10 to 100 and then from 100 to 1,000? That’s the moment we are in.

What challenges does this exponential growth bring?

We focus on challenges that we can control. This is part of the maturation process of the entrepreneurial group and the team. For example, if a tax in Brazil goes up or down, there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s a given. What we concentrate our energy on is how we are going to position ourselves, what scenarios we can manage, which other markets we can enter, or which niche will become available.

In a business with this speed and dynamism where immediacy is crucial, the most important thing is our ability to adapt and to have the right people.

We work with 20 marketplaces in Latin America where we sell products from US and Chinese sellers. Thus, it’s about the capacity to process and decide, for instance, “Let’s move faster into Mexico because the opportunity is greater,” or “Let’s target this niche market,” or “Let’s open another market or another source because it converts better.”

All of this comes down to the team; having people with a high intellectual level and high emotional intelligence to adapt to changes and uncertainty. They must have the ability to acquire important negotiation skills, endure tough times because there are plenty of those, and find opportunities when faced with obstacles. What do you do when you hit a wall? Do you knock it down, go around it, or build another structure?

It’s the creativity that comes from resilience, always returning to the basics, remembering that you are connecting points that weren’t communicating through products that perhaps have no importers or are inefficient.

And how does the technological aspect come into play?

When I talk about the team, I include technology because it’s the team that builds the technology. We have an extraordinary team that knows how to build quickly and prioritize developments for a solid architecture. They also conduct data intelligence regarding products, consumer profiles, pricing, and elasticity.

Obviously, having good supply chains and partnerships to sell in Latin America, optimizing delivery times, and managing working capital effectively is crucial. We need to understand margins well, how to utilize them, maintain healthy accounts, and ensure that the platform offers a good consumer experience while navigating legal challenges efficiently. This involves monitoring public policies and staying connected to the right conversational platforms. All of this forms the foundation of nocnoc.

Why is nocnoc so attractive to sellers from outside the region?

There are about 20 million digital sellers focused on marketplaces just between the US and China. They represent 80% of international purchases from Latin America. Official data shows that in Brazil, these digital sellers account for less than 1% of sales. In Mexico, it’s higher, likely due to its proximity to the US and more open regulations. But there are millions who don't sell, and much less so in Chile, Colombia, or Peru. Why? Imagine a seller in Miami or China who sells on Amazon or Walmart in the US. If they want to enter another market, Amazon generally takes them to Europe or Canada, eventually to Mexico, Germany, England, or Japan. The same happens in China, where they sell on AliExpress and other platforms.

90% of their revenue might come from 2 to 4 very large marketplaces. When they seek international expansion to diversify, they see that Latin America represents 10% of the world, with many countries, currencies, and regulations, and it has numerous marketplaces.

We can drill down further. Unlocking 10% of the world is great. Drill down again and you have relevant markets in Latam. Drill down again and each market is different. In Brazil, for instance, 85% of sales occur in marketplaces, not on the web. At the same time, there is fragmentation. There are 15 to 20 marketplaces that account for 80% of sales in Latam.

So, if you want to capture 80% of 10% of the world, you need to integrate with 15 to 20 marketplaces and establish local entities in each market. You need a lawyer in each market, understand the rules, and establish connections and contracts with each marketplace. You also need people to respond to consumers in real-time and in their language. Logistics must be excellent because if you don’t meet standards, you risk suspension. Additionally, you need to understand the competition for your products. A product’s market dynamics in Mexico at a certain price may differ from Brazil, depending on the competition and whether your brand exists in the market and how strong it is.

We simplify all these complexities.

What is our value proposition to a seller from China or the United States? To open 80% of 10% of the world effortlessly. They give us the products, and we publish them on all marketplaces simultaneously in an aggregator that works like a shopping mall within a shopping mall.

So, in a way, you’re like partners…

We are their partners, a kind of “online distributor.” Although we don’t buy inventory, we enable them to sell. We handle the origin and distribution to millions of consumers without them having to do anything.

Does it work on a commission basis?

It has different billing methods, one of which is a commission.

What evolution have you seen in Latin American marketplaces in recent years?

There is a growing trend that increasingly strengthens marketplaces in the region.

In Brazil (similarly in Mexico), approximately 80-85% of online sales come from marketplaces. There is significant fragmentation. On one hand, you have what are called pure players like Mercado Libre, which was born digital and as a marketplace. Now, it may be moving towards a model where it sells its own products, but fundamentally it remains a pure marketplace. However, the world is very dynamic, and even local players struggle to stay up-to-date.

Imagine someone from China or the United States. Platforms like PedidosYa and Rappi are increasingly becoming like that, offering to shop in stores.

Then you have local retailers like Frávega in Argentina, which is a traditional retailer with a well-established brand. It has its own marketplace where instead of negotiating with suppliers to buy inventory, it invites them to sell on its platform.

The same happens in Mexico with Coppel, Walmart, and Liverpool, which are huge department stores. Similarly, in Chile with Cencosud and Falabella, and in Brazil with Magazine Luiza. These are all well-known stores that are aggressively transitioning to marketplaces because the business model offers very good margins, positive cash flow, and they act as orchestrators. They carry no inventory risk, attract many consumers, and can offer additional services. They can handle logistics, payments, marketing, and provide consultancy services.

And then there are the international players like AliExpress, Amazon, and others, which in some ways challenge the stability of the local commerce status quo. They shift the balance of power because they come with deep pockets and the intention to aggressively capture market share. They offer a global range of products that local players sometimes cannot match. Local businesses have the advantage of fast delivery, but international players, while potentially slower, offer different products. This dynamic in Latin America is becoming increasingly aggressive. Mercado Libre in Brazil is growing, international players are also growing and changing. Chinese companies are entering with significant capital, and Amazon is well-positioned.

What we are seeing is local players saying, "This is my market, I know the consumer well, and the consumer knows me." Additionally, in Brazil, Mexico, or Colombia, there are niche marketplaces that are quite large.

So, is there a differential in knowing how to sell across this multitude of marketplaces?

Yes, our value proposition is not just enabling sellers to list on multiple platforms but also our expertise in selling on each platform.

It's about the level of detail involved in going to a pet marketplace in Brazil, knowing where to place products, setting the right discounts, pricing correctly, understanding which products are best-selling, prospecting, and delivering effectively. It's a comprehensive approach across 20 to 30 marketplaces.

What do you see for the future?

There is something very clear: the opportunity is enormous. Today, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia are the main markets we operate in. But we dream of other emerging markets. Not just Latin America, but being able to say, "This brand goes to Nigeria, this other brand to an Asian country."

How did the connection with IC Ventures come about, and what do you highlight about the relationship with the fund?

The relationship is excellent. They are partners. They are people we admire and consider friends because it's not just a typical investment fund: they supported us when we had just a PowerPoint. We knew them from before for various reasons. Personally, I knew several of them from a previous venture, and my partners knew them from other companies. They are spectacular partners in the sense that they support you when things are going well and even more when things get tough. They are very founder-oriented, meaning they understand that the entrepreneur is putting everything on the line, that they are staking their lives on the venture.

They allow the decision to be what's best for you. Perhaps there are other funds that prioritize valuation multiples or returns, but they prioritize the entrepreneur.

The underlying principle is to trust in the intelligence and decisions of the entrepreneur. They empower to the point of giving an opinion but support whatever decision is made.

They have helped us immensely with decisions and networking abroad. If I need them, I pick up the phone, and they are 100% there.

They are good people, very human, with whom you want to go out for a barbecue. It's not just business. We are very happy to have them as partners. Even if other people come along the way, those who believed in you from day one are rock solid. You never forget that.

Last year you received a significant investment led by PayPal. Have you been able to deploy the plans you had for that investment?

We are doing very well, above our objectives. And we are facing significant challenges because what we are doing is very complex. We always say that if it didn't have challenges, anyone could do it. It involves many variables, but we have the right people, highly skilled, world-class, dynamic individuals. Most of them are in Uruguay, and we have very talented people in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, China, and the United States. We also have top-notch people supporting us in strategy, contacts, and decision-making. I think one of our main advantages is our excellent execution.

We are very excited about everything that lies ahead. There is so much to do and connect in the world that it feels like we are just getting started.