Rappi diversifies and bets on the entertainment sector
Grupo Financiero Banorte (GFNorte) and Rappi today formalized a strategic alliance to form a new partnership, with the purpose of offering digital financial services.
Rappi presents a new bet in the Latin American market. The Colombian startup has decided to develop an ecosystem to provide fun to millions of people in Latin America. This is an option focused on the users and their experience, who will have access to a category completely thought of them and their daily entertainment, with millions of intuitive options for everyone.
Rappi Games: Considering that 'games' is the largest category in the entire entertainment industry, exceeding 156 billion dollars in 2020 worldwide, Rappi Games was created. The first platform with more than 150 high-quality games to play when, where, and with whomever the person decides, winning real-world prizes. With this option, it is expected to reach more than 130 thousand unique users per week and more than seven million games played monthly.
Rappi Live Events: The event industry, which exceeds 156 million dollars worldwide has reinvented itself, and today artists have found close ways to connect with their users and the users, a new way to interact with their favorite artists. That's why at Rappi Live Events it will be possible to connect artists with more than 30 million potential fans in the region and allow people to interact with their artists in real-time, buy their merchandising, and have personalized experiences.
It will also be possible to enjoy the events with friends virtually, share messages and interact in more than 50 monthly events of artists and personalities from all industries: singers, master classes, comedy, sports, among others.
Live Shopping: The first platform in Latin America that connects live events with a real-time shopping experience, with the ability to offer users options on their favorite brands.
Rappi Music: The music industry is growing for the fifth consecutive year generating revenues of nearly 20.2 billion dollars and streaming has increased by 23% compared to last year. Today there are over 341 million subscribers to streaming platforms worldwide.
Rappi has developed Rappi Music, the first music platform 100% created in Latin America that will concentrate 360 degrees with Live Events to offer users a complete value proposition. This option will allow to unite everything within Rappi's ecosystem and bring everything to a single platform.
Banorte and Rappi sign alliance to create a digital financial services society
Grupo Financiero Banorte (GFNorte) and Rappi today formalized a strategic alliance to form a new partnership, to offer digital financial services mainly to the millions of users of Rappi's platform, taking advantage of the solid experience of the largest and most important Mexican financial group.
The new company, of which GFNorte and Rappi will be shareholders (50%-50%), subject to the corresponding regulatory authorizations, will focus on Rappi's broad user base, digital natives who adopt new technologies. This initiative will form a broad digital financial ecosystem, which will coexist with digital mobility and e-commerce services.
The current situation brought about by Covid-19 has forced millions of people to use digital applications to make their daily lives easier. In this sense, Mexicans need now more than ever a new way of banking, more agile and close to the daily digital experience, in which Rappi has positioned itself as an undisputed leader.
It is in this context that both companies decided to join efforts to continue betting on the economic development and welfare of the country, through an alliance that contributes to economic recovery through the promotion of financial services in Mexico. This operation is aligned with GFNorte's digital and technological strategy, with which the institution seeks to gain presence and penetration in the digital financial services sector.
Just last November 6, SoftBank reported a loss of 8.3 billion euros (about 9.19 billion dollars) between April and September 2019. This loss was mainly due to the devaluation of the Japanese corporate investments in Uber and WeWork. While Uber's share has shown little encouraging behavior after its IPO last May, WeWork did not even have the opportunity to become a public company, in addition to firing its founder and director Adam Neumann.
Rappi's business model is a four-sided marketplace, serving users, retailers, brands, and deliverers, known as Rappitenderos. According to the company, it currently has a presence in more than 100 cities in nine Latin American countries and its turnover has quadrupled in the last year. In Mexico, this factor has multiplied fivefold, so this year has been able to expand from 12 to 31 cities in the country, with 15,000 merchants affiliated and 30,000 Rappitenderos.
The start-up was created in 2015 and operates in 35 cities in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil. The application uses an army of delivery drivers on bicycles to deliver orders. In 2018, Rappi multiplied the number of delivered products by seven and recorded a monthly growth of 20% in the seven countries where it operates. Among its investors are SoftBank, DST Global, Delivery Hero, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Y Combinator, where it was accelerated in 2016.