Why We Invested: Cayena

The B2B market, estimated to be as large as $100 trillion USD, presents an enormous opportunity for disruption. While B2C e-commerce has grown tremendously, B2B businesses still rely on traditional procurement methods such as phone calls, emails, and even faxes.

Cayena, a Brazilian B2B wholesale marketplace, is revolutionizing the restaurant industry and aims to be the go-to solution for restaurants, offering a vertical-specific, turnkey solution to simplify purchasing processes for both buyers and sellers. By leveraging volume discounts, price and vendor comparison, and streamlining orders, Cayena saves time, reduces costs, and improves inventory rotation, benefiting customers and suppliers alike.

However, entering the B2B market is complex, with no predefined path to success. Acquiring both buyers and sellers is a challenging and costly process, especially during the initial stages. Startups must adapt their approach to the specific industry, understanding the value chain dynamics and offering tailored solutions to lower churn. Sustainable growth requires building complementary products and continuously staying in touch with customers to identify evolving needs and revenue drivers.

Cayena's platform serves as a one-stop shop for restaurants, bars, and industrial kitchens to replenish their inventory efficiently and at the same prices as large chains. By providing real-time inventory updates and next-day delivery, Cayena eliminates the need for manual price comparisons and offers superior post-sale support and credit solutions. Their drop-shipping fulfillment model optimizes the entire process, enabling restaurants to enjoy benefits such as greater bargaining power, improved supplier allocation, and a seamlessly integrated experience for buyers and sellers.

Cayena's competitive advantage lies in leveraging network effects and switching costs. Their attractive economic value proposition, combined with low adoption barriers, drives immediate transactions and value creation. Through strategic partnerships, they secure quality buyers and sellers, ensuring trust and fostering growth. Additionally, Cayena's asset-light model allows them to outsource costly parts of the value chain while generating valuable insights from their data. 

The startup has also launched CayenaPay, their embedded credit and installment payments solution for buyers that includes credit analysis, loans and collections, and credit risk management, further addressing consumer pain points. In turn, clients benefit from immediate access to a wider range of products, improved purchasing efficiency, and financial tools, making Cayena a preferred partner in the market. 

Cayena boasts a highly skilled and experienced team of co-founders that brings a wealth of expertise to the table. The company was founded by Raymond Shayo, who has a background in the investment banking division at J.P. Morgan, as well as in the private equity and special situations funds at Brookfield Asset Management; Gabriel Sendacz, who previously worked at Neo Investimentos with a focus on private equity and structured debt practices; and Pedro Carvalho, a former investment banker at Merrill Lynch who also served as the head of growth at LooqBox. 

FEMSA Ventures recognizes the immense potential of Cayena as a gateway to the vast B2B marketplace, especially through Cayena's focus on leveraging data from historically offline channels like the food service industry, which provides invaluable insights to FEMSA's core businesses. By sharing our expertise in the B2C and B2B restaurant industry and shortening their learning curve, we can support Cayena's market leadership position and contribute to their continued success. This partnership aligns with FEMSA's proactive approach to digitalization and our commitment to the Latin American market.

Cayena's strong market positioning, rapid growth, and robust product pipeline are the key elements of the reason why we invested in the startup. Their focus on transforming the B2B wholesale marketplace for restaurants aligns with our strategic goals and offers significant potential for expansion and disruption. 

We're incredibly excited to support Cayena's vision and potential to revolutionize the B2B wholesale marketplace for restaurants while becoming a market leader in the industry.