IGNIA made an undisclosed investment in Virket, a Mexican provider of performance management solutions for small businesses.

(Press Release) As technology becomes more accessible and ubiquitous, there is an unprecedented massive opportunity for an underserved growing market of 30 million Hispanic and Latin American SMBs to compete online and conquer a smarter and connected consumer in the “age of the customer”.

This market however, has struggled to adopt digital technologies by themselves due to limited bandwidth, budget and experience. Having delivered over 500,000 digital solutions, Virket has a proven track record on successfully digitizing the SMB ecosystem at scale.

Virket offers “all-in-one” digital solutions that combines DIY technology (SaaS) with DIFM services (SwaS) to help small / local businesses grow, manage and track their performance online in an effective, practical and accessible way.

Virket’s digital solutions integrate a complete suite of technologies including web presence, e-commerce, directory listings, social media, local SEO, lead generation ad campaigns, mobile apps, marketing automation & CRM tools, business intelligence dashboards, and big data / predictive analytics capabilities.

In order to reach a massive market, Virket works on digital transformation with a network of large enterprise channel partners in various industries, by providing them with white-label value added services and technology to digitize their SMB customers / franchisees / multi-location stores / distributors at scale.

These channel partners are typically leading brands in their respective sectors, such as directories, registrars, marketplaces, telcos, media, IT / software, MLM / direct selling, retail, franchises, real estate, among others.

To be able to operate efficiently, Virket uses a combination of third-party platforms and proprietary technology, to integrate its product offering and to automate its business processes, optimized progressively through machine learning and artificial intelligence, allowing the delivery of solutions at scale and very competitive costs.

Headquartered in Mexico, Virket has already achieved important recognition in the sector with several awards by having the largest digital footprint in its market, and its aiming now to disrupt the entire Hispanic SMB ecosystem in a renewed development phase.

“We are very enthusiastic about our investment in Virket as we see the real commitment, expertise and track record of Pedro’s team, and are convinced of the vital service they offer for SMBs in the digital era. With +20% compounded annual growth in the Latam SMB cloud services market, we see hundreds of thousands of companies that will be able to benefit from their products and services” commented Álvaro Rodriguez Arregui, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of IGNIA.

“We are committed to fulfilling our mission of digitizing the Hispanic local businesses with scalable digital solutions, with IGNIA’s investment and support, we will accelerate our path to achieve this vision” said Pedro Quinzaños Cancino, Founder & CEO of Virket.

About IGNIA

IGNIA is a venture capital fund that invests in high growth companies aimed at the emerging middle class in Mexico. Founded in 2007, IGNIA has two funds and USD 200 million in capital raised. IGNIA invests in sectors such as health, fintech, financial services, education and basic services. For more information please see: www.ignia.mx and @IGNIA_Fund.

Contact:
Edith Kirsch
Investor and Institutional Relations
Tel: +52 (55) 8000 7295
Email: [email protected]

About VIRKET
VIRKET is a digital technology and services powerhouse that delivers local business success at scale. With more than 500,000 digital solutions delivered over 20 countries, VIRKET has a proven track record since 2009 on successfully digitizing the local business ecosystem across the U.S. Hispanic and Latin America markets through a network of large enterprise Channel Partners in various sectors.
For more information, please see: www.virket.com

Contact:
Luis Romero Plasencia
CFO & Investor Relations
Tel: + 52 (55) 5292 7028