Yavendió raises a pre-seed round of 850,000 USD to boost e-commerce sales in LATAM with specialized AI and advanced analytics

Mexico City, February 27, 2025– Yavendió, the startup driving e-commerce brand sales through AI virtual agents on WhatsApp, announces the closing of its pre-seed round for an amount of 850,000 USD. The investment was led by Magma Partners, iThink VC, Semilla Ventures, and angels who trust in the vision and experience of its founding team.

Their proposal goes beyond a generic chatbot: the technology creates highly specialized AI virtual agents for commerce capable of conversing with customers, recommending hundreds of products, managing payments, and even coordinating deliveries without human intervention. In the past year, Yavendió has enabled an intelligent sales channel for over 100 fashion, footwear, beauty, and home goods businesses in Mexico and Peru, and has doubled its business in the past six months thanks to high adoption of its platform by brands seeking sales solutions on WhatsApp and other social networks. 

"We invested in Yavendió because they are e-commerce experts. They have understood that this sector has very specific needs, and their product on WhatsApp is much more than a generic chatbot, automating the entire sales process uniquely," commented Nathan Lustig, Managing Partner of Magma Partners.

This investment comes at a crucial moment in the evolution of e-commerce in Latin America. According to Statista, the e-commerce market in Latin America is expected to grow significantly by 2025, with social commerce emerging as a key driver. WhatsApp has become the dominant communication platform in the region, with more than 90% of internet users regularly accessing the application. However, despite this digital shift, many small and medium-sized enterprises still struggle to effectively manage their online sales operations, particularly when handling large product catalogs and customer interactions at scale.

"SMEs in Latin America struggle to increase their online sales because manual management of leads and conversations generates inefficiencies and lost opportunities. What excited us about Yavendió is its hyper-focused and vertical use of agentic AI, automating 95% of the process and generating 35% more sales at only 20% of the traditional cost," said Juan Cruz Valdez Rojas, General Partner of iThink VC, part of the Seedstars Capital platform.

Enabling WhatsApp for brands that previously avoided it

Despite the high conversion rates offered by WhatsApp, many medium and large brands dismissed it as too operational and not scalable. Yavendió overcomes these barriers with a comprehensive platform that automates most tasks, allowing companies to leverage the conversational channel with high levels of personalization without overburdening their teams.

“The close contact achieved on WhatsApp increases the likelihood of a sale. However, manual operations discouraged many brands. With Yavendió, that complexity becomes an almost automatic process, freeing the team for higher-value tasks,” said David Tafur, CEO of Yavendió.

The end of traditional sales teams?

The automation of customer interactions on WhatsApp goes beyond simple support. Companies face the real possibility of replacing large sales teams or, at least, reallocating their functions. While some see this as an opportunity to reduce costs and scale rapidly, others consider how to preserve the human touch.

“Our AI not only understands user intent; it also manages the entire purchase process, from product selection and recommendation to checkout. This redefines the role of the sales force and allows companies to scale without raising operational costs,” comments the Yavendió team.

Focus on medium-sized e-commerces with high SKU volume

In Latin America, over 450,000 brands actively sell through social networks. Many of them manage extensive catalogs, constant promotions, and multiple product variations. Yavendió costs only between 15% and 20% of what a traditional operation costs, with conversions up to 30% higher. 

A bright future

Currently, Yavendió's AI focuses exclusively on conversing with consumers, offering recommendations, and managing payments. With this round of $850,000, the company will invest in the development of a new model that will have the capability to assist the business, facilitating the setup of virtual sellers and streamlining internal administration. 

Additionally, new offices will be opened in Mexico to strengthen local presence, and capital will be allocated to expand commerce integrations and enhance analytical capabilities. Thus, Yavendió is on its way to consolidating itself as a comprehensive solution for brands seeking to scale sales through conversational channels in Latin America.

About Yavendió

Yavendió is a startup dedicated to revolutionizing e-commerce sales in Latin America through AI virtual agents integrated into WhatsApp and other social networks. Their proposal goes beyond simply connecting with ChatGPT, adding layers of knowledge, recommendation, payment processing, and analytics. This allows medium-sized brands to optimize the entire conversational sales process, from customer service to sale closure and order tracking.