Founded in 2020 by Przemyslaw Budkowski, Tomasz Nowak and Sebastian Pietrowski, formerly CEO, COO and Development Director of Allegro Group respectively, merXu is an international B2B platform for the industrial market currently operating in Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The company serves thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises, creating a secure business environment that connects verified buyers and sellers to purchase goods online.
The proceeds of the fundraiser will go towards the company’s next phase of growth, with plans to launch in new European countries, prioritizing its international footprint into Germany, which launched today. Poland alone is Germany’s third-largest business partner and the Visegrad Group (an economical alliance of four countries of Central Europe: Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, all of which are members of the EU and NATO) became the biggest economical partner of Germany in 2020, overtaking China, generating €286 billion EUR in export.
merXu also plans to use the funds to integrate B2B payments functionality within its platform and build out its team.
“Business owners and procurement managers are simply spending too much time finding professional and reliable sellers. Manufacturers on the other hand struggle to expand their businesses internationally, facing challenges with payments and logistics experience. We’ve seen the B2C space transition into a largely seamless experience today – one that is almost expected. merXu is looking to expand this accessibility and ease of purchasing to the B2B ecosystem in Europe. This new funding will allow us to accelerate our growth, while layering in new features with the European customer in mind”, stated Przemyslaw Budkowski, CEO and Co-Founder of merXu.
“Prosus Ventures invests in sectors around the world where innovation can significantly address big societal needs. The merXu team has built a product with clear consumer value that sits at the forefront of a few major trends: the acceleration of ecommerce adoption, nearshoring and the shift in manufacturing to Central and Eastern Europe. There are clear expansion opportunities ahead and we are delighted to join merXu’s exceptionally strong team as an investor. We look forward to supporting the company in its next phase of growth”, stated Sandeep Bakshi, Head of European Investments, Prosus Ventures
Attila Okányi, Country Manager merXu Romania and Hungary, said the approximately 1.2 million small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) active in Romania and Hungary represent a huge growth potential for merXu. He added that the GDP growth rates of the two countries is above the EU average, which is set to further boost the number of SMEs.
merXu is a pan-European B2B marketplace serving small- and medium-sized enterprises looking to buy wholesale goods online. The merXu platform enables manufacturers, wholesalers, contractors and retailers to buy and sell industrial products such as office equipment, lighting, machinery, chemicals and tools. With over two million products for sale, the merXu platform serves over fifteen thousand of companies across Central and Eastern Europe, currently operating in Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, with plans to expand to Germany and other countries in the coming months.