This story requires our BI Prime membership. To read the full article,The London-based e-commerce infrastructure company VTEX recently raised its first major fundraising round from SoftBank's Latin America fund and two major Brazilian investors.
"Previously we were allergic to external funding because we were doing well without, but now we know how to scale and see the opportunity," Mariano Gomide, the co-CEO of VTEX, told Business Insider in an interview. Two Brazilian entrepreneurs spent years shunning external funding as they grew their business before deciding to take on SoftBank cash in a bid to take the company to the next level.
Founded in 1999, VTEX has generally avoided taking big capital. "I think it's a big mistake from entrepreneurs to think of a big funding round as an end goal," VTEX co-CEO Mariano Gomide told Business Insider in an interview. "We were allergic to investment until we found the best way to apply that money wisely to scale, and now we have our playbook for growth."