A Chattanooga-based start-up that delivers products from the United States to South American countries has acquired one of its biggest competitors in a move that will broaden its reach across the continent.
The company, Shappi, operates out of three suites in the Incubator, a small business development hub on Cherokee Boulevard run by the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. Headed by Karla and C.J. Valdivieso, the company uses a network of workers called travelers to deliver products from the United States to four countries in Latin America.
Many large U.S. brands don’t deliver to South America or lack any meaningful presence despite a demand for products that has created a massive flow of informal trade that doesn’t comply with relevant regulations, Karla Valdivieso said.
“Because we don’t have the means of buying things from e-commerce or in physical stores, this informal trade is estimated to be an industry of $28 billion annually, meaning that $28 billion are moved from the U.S. to South America in families’ and friends’ suitcases without any compliance,” Valdivieso, the company’s cofounder and CEO, said in a phone call. “Shappi is grabbing that demand and that supply and putting it into a system.”