Global Business to Business Marketplace

At any given time there are about 10 million business-to-business transactions taking place online, and trade portals expected to grow as more firms transition to e-commerce.

Industry portals, like TradeGecko, provide a B2B marketplace with a global reach and local touch. It streamlines the sourcing of businesses' supply chain needs with procurement solutions that help manufacturers take control of their inventory and cash flow.

It's now possible for manufacturers to locate suppliers in their region or around the world and buy directly from them with just one click.

TradeGecko is the largest and most popular global trade portal for businesses buying, selling and trading goods.

More than 5,000 manufacturers buy from TradeGecko every month through their individual accounts or through trade portals.

The firm has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Economist and BBC to name a few.

It has also made the list of "The World's Most Innovative Companies" by Fast Company magazine and has been recognized with Gartner's CIO 100 Award as one of the most innovative companies in retail banking. 

Logistics firm UPS chose TradeGecko as the preferred trade partner of choice for its supply chain needs globally. Government clients are also using TradeGecko to source local vendors and purchase products from abroad.

TradeGecko's U.S.-based team comprises sourcing experts, e-commerce experts, analysts, business development professionals and support staff.

The company is based in NYC with an office in Rio de Janeiro. 

In addition to its global reach, TradeGecko has an inventory of more than 3 million products from more than 80 countries.

It also has the largest online marketplace for Brazilian businesses working with the Brazilian government and over 60 other national governments in the world. TradeGecko also has the largest online marketplace for businesses working with the Brazilian government.

Its largest international market is Brazil, but TradeGecko does business with clients in more than 40 countries and in 25 different languages.

The company's software-as-a-service product allows businesses to source globally, invoice globally and pay globally within one platform.

TradeGecko's corporate data has been developed using more than 4.5 billion supply chain transactions spanning 20 years. This expertise and data have been used to develop applications including TradeGecko, a B2B supply management solution; Geckoboard, a business dashboard tool; and Geckolibrary, a predictive analytics tool that helps companies predict future trends based on available data.

The company is backed by venture firms including Accel Partners in Silicon Valley, where it also has an office.

In Brazil, TradeGecko has raised $1.2 million from angel investors and a Brazilian incubator for business startups called NXTP Labs. 

TradeGecko's investment manager is Atlantic Bridge Ventures, and its legal advisor is Covington & Burling LLP, an international law firm. 

The company's board of directors includes Eze Vidra (Co-Founder and CEO), Brian Donohoe (Managing Director at the Accel-KKR Fund) and David Chen (Partner at Atlantic Bridge Ventures). It also includes Lance Balzer, Chairman Emeritus of Tintri Inc. and Head of the H.E.L. Financial Technology Fund, and Eric Winquist, CEO of Tintri Inc. Brazil-based board members include Felipe Beraldo, former Senior Vice President at Grupo XP; Guilherme Henrique Santos de Carvalho, who is also an angel investor in TradeGecko; and Gustavo Paiva, an angel investor in TradeGecko as well as a cofounder of NXTP Labs and president of a Brazilian incubator for business startups called NXTP Labs.

In 2011, Eze Vidra founded EZee Group LLC with his brother Ben Vidra. Ben was the company's CTO while Eze was its CEO.

EZee Group LLC was a technology firm that provided IT services, software development and digital marketing to businesses throughout the world.

The company made a name for itself developing Supply Chain Optimization software, which helped businesses to reduce costs, inventory and risk.

Vidra was asked who his target audience was for this product. He responded, "Manufacturers love it because it helps them save money... It also helps retailers because they can see where their merchandise is selling so they can adjust their supply chain."

EZee Group LLC moved its headquarters from New Jersey to Manhattan's Silicon Alley in 2012. There was a large influx of startups coming from Silicon Alley to New Jersey.

Vidra said, "Silicon Alley provides a great place for entrepreneurs to start companies but it's not really the place for them to grow them anymore." 

He added that New York City was more cost effective and had great access to talent. There are new offices in Dallas, Los Angeles, London, Sydney and other locations around the world.

EZee Group is involved in e-commerce, marketing automation and supply chain optimization solutions. They also provide consulting services for brands looking to implement online marketing strategies. EZee Group is a certified Google Partner and Oracle Business Cloud Provider, which means they work with Google and Oracle's cloud computing solutions. EZee Group also works with other types of business systems including SAP and Marketo.

EZee Systems was founded by Eze Vidra in 1999. It was a business unit of EZee Group LLC, which gave the firm access to its cloud computing software, e-commerce and marketing optimization platforms. EZee Systems emphasized business process automation and online marketing solutions for retailers.

In 2009, EZee Systems developed a new software that would assist fashion retailers with their product fulfillment services while providing online marketplaces with the information they needed to optimize their inventory management systems. The product was called Inventory Optimization System or IOS for short.

In 2012, EZee Systems was renamed TradeGecko in order to more clearly demonstrate its business offering. At the same time, it hired a new CEO and decided to focus on its corporate customers instead of small and medium businesses.

TradeGecko was founded by Eze Vidra in 2012 with the start up capital of $1 million from angel investors. It is headquartered in New York City.

Some angel investors that contributed to the initial funding of Trade Gecko include Duncan Logan, partner at Index Ventures; Alex Chesterman, founder of Zoopla Property Group; Jeremy Silver, founder and CEO at Sauce Labs; and Jonathan Kimberling, head of private equity at Grotech Ventures.

Conclusion

In July 2012, TradeGecko announced a $6.2 million Series A round of funding led by Accel Partners Venture Fund and including investment from angel investors.

The investment gave TradeGecko the capital it needed to scale operations and bring its product to market.

The following month, Accel opened an office in Brazil for Eze Vidra and his brother Ben Vidra to expand TradeGecko's business in South America.

In 2013, TradeGecko raised $5 million from investors including existing angel investors as well as funds managed by Tintri Inc., a Silicon Valley-based technology company that makes blade servers and cloud computing systems for telecommunications companies.