Why I Invested: Rappi

Why I invested: A writing series on early stage angel investing chronicling the rationales behind various early stage tech bets by Pete Kazanjy.

While I’m not as much of a consumer marketplace investor (B2B SaaS and B2B Marketplaces are more my thing), I am friends with the founders of Instacart, and always kicked myself for missing early rounds of theirs. That, and my last software company was in the same portfolio as Uber at First Round (the outcomes were just a smidge different…lol). Anyway, I’m somewhat familiar with the power of consumer marketplaces that tip.

In 2016, when I saw Rappi’s Series A on Fundersclub, it made me think about the components of what makes a killer on-demand marketplace - and realized as long as the supply side has human components to it, then the higher the Gini coefficient of a market (that is, the more low income folks who are eager to act as on-demand runners), crossed with enough high income demand side folks who need delivery, the better off the market is.

So while the Ubers, Doordashes, and so on of the world have always had to contend with tough supply side conditions (in the developed world, at least)…Rappi would be less impacted by this.

That is, the key enabling technology that enabled on-demand marketplaces - the GPS-enabled smartphone - was scalably deployed and deployable in Latin America…there were still large numbers of low income people who could act as shoppers / drivers / runners.

I put in $10k and have been amazed to watch the ascent, with Sequoia, DST, Softbank, and T. Rowe Price leading subsequents rounds.