Branddu AI was born from the merger between Branddu, founded in Bogotá in 2019 by Mariana Velásquez, and Reno, founded in Mexico by Sebastián Illescas. The new company is positioned as the first MerchTech in Latin America: a B2B platform that combines artificial intelligence, proprietary technology and a network of regional and international suppliers to transform the way companies buy merchandising and promotional products. As part of the launch, Branddu AI closed a pre-seed round of US$300,000, adding US$800,000 in total capital raised.
The merger unites two complementary proposals: Branddu provided the regional scale with operations in Colombia, Mexico and the United States, while Reno provided the MerchTech DNA, with a focus on automation and artificial intelligence to modernize the purchase of corporate merchandising. Together, they have more than 700 clients and more than 4,150 executed projects, with a catalog of more than 35,000 products.
A large but lagging industry
The global merchandising market moves around US$90 billion a year, and in the United States alone it will exceed US$27 billion in 2025. However, most purchases continue to depend on quotes that take days, dispersed inventories and manual processes. In Latin America the problem is exacerbated: companies with multi-country operations face different suppliers in each market, variable costs and unclear times.
“Bringing Branddu and Reno together allows us to accelerate something that we had been pursuing separately: fundamentally digitizing an industry that operated slowly and manually for years. Latin America has the talent and suppliers to lead that transformation,” said Mariana Velásquez, CEO and co-founder of Branddu AI.
From marketplace to regional infrastructure
Branddu AI enables businesses to find, quote, customize, and purchase products in minutes from a single platform, eliminating reliance on multiple emails, vendors, and manual response times. Clients include Netflix, Canva, Kavak, Clara, JP Morgan, GBM, AXA, Samsung, Warner Bros. Discovery and WeWork, among others.
With the new resources, the company will seek to consolidate its operation in Latin America, scale in the United States and position MerchTech as a global category. “In Reno we were pioneers of MerchTech. This merger takes that category to another scale, with an immediate and intuitive experience. Technology does not replace, it optimizes,” said Sebastián Illescas, CRO and co-founder of Branddu AI.
