Bebê, meet Baby

Bebê Store ( www.bebestore.com.br), Brazil’s leading online baby goods retailer and a company we’ve been proud to back since 2011, has just announced the acquisition of its main competitor in the country — Baby ( www.baby.com.br).

We’ve believed in founders Leonardo and Juliana Simão and their vision for Bebê Store for a long time, becoming their first outside investors. Since then, we’ve worked with the team to help scale the business and are delighted that they’re consolidating their leadership of the market with this transaction. Baby has undoubtedly been a major player in Bebê Store’s field, having attracted over $50 million in investment prior to its acquisition, and the combination of their operations will help Leonardo, Juliana and the team take the business to a new level of success.

This kind of consolidation is also an important milestone in Brazil’s fast-maturing e-commerce industry. There’s no doubt that the growth of e-commerce has been one of the biggest factors in Brazil’s economic resurgence over the past decade. Around 50 million people in the country have now made an online purchase — and at just 23% of the population this shows the great potential for growth, with Brazil’s e-commerce market forecast to become the world’s 4th largest by 2016.

Bebê Store has done a great job of executing against that opportunity, growing their monthly revenue by 1200% since our first investment. We’ve been proud to continue to support them with follow-on investments, most recently in March 2013 alongside W7 Venture Capital, and are also pleased to now welcome as a co-investor Endeavor Catalyst (a passive co-investment vehicle that allows Endeavor Global to invest in Endeavor Entrepreneurs in a neutral, unbiased way). With today’s news, we’re more confident than ever that the team will continue to build their leadership in the region.