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MercadoLibre (MELI) Delivered Robust Results in Q1

MercadoLibre (MELI) Delivered Robust Results in Q1

Yahoo9 hours ago
Lakehouse Capital, a Sydney-based investment manager, released its 'Lakehouse Global Growth Fund' May 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. May proved to be a favorable month for the Fund, driven by a boost in investor sentiment and solid results from portfolio holdings. Overall, the firm remains satisfied with the strong fundamental performance and long-term growth outlook of its portfolio holdings. The Fund returned 6.1% net of fees and expenses for the month compared to 5.1% for its benchmark. Since its inception in December 2017, the Fund has returned 250.6% compared to 133.8% for its benchmark, the MSCI All Country World Index, Net Total Returns (AUD). In addition, please check the fund's top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its May 2025 investor letter, Lakehouse Global Growth Fund highlighted stocks such as MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI). MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) is an online commerce platform that operates Mercado Libre Marketplace and Mercado Pago FinTech platforms. The one-month return of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) was -2.62%, and its shares gained 57.97% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 3, 2025, MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) stock closed at $2,514.05 per share, with a market capitalization of $127.456 billion.
Lakehouse Global Growth Fund stated the following regarding MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) in its May 2025 investor letter:
"Buenos Aires-based e-commerce leader MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) delivered another strong result with an impressive balance of growth and profitability. Net revenue grew 37% year-on-year to $5.9 billion while operating income grew 45% to US$763 million. It's core marketplace business grew across all major regions and total gross merchandise volume (GMV) increased 26% year-on-year to $13.3 billion. Argentina was a bright spot, with GMV growing 77% in USD terms as the economy continues to experience a rapid recovery. The platform's key metrics remained healthy with unique buyers increasing 25% to 67 million – the strongest growth since early 2021 – and items sold growing 26%.
A customer using their phone to access an online commerce platform.
MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 108 hedge fund portfolios held MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) at the end of the first quarter which was 96 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the undervalued AI stock set for massive gains.
In another article, we covered MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) and shared the list of best NASDAQ growth stocks to buy for the next 3 years. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors. While we acknowledge the potential of MELI as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
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Drive Capital's second act – how the Columbus venture firm found success after a split
Drive Capital's second act – how the Columbus venture firm found success after a split

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Drive Capital's second act – how the Columbus venture firm found success after a split

The venture capital world has always had a hot-and-cold relationship with the Midwest. Investors rush in during boom times, then retreat to the coasts when markets turn sour. For Columbus, Ohio-based Drive Capital, this cycle of attention and disinterest played out against the backdrop of its own internal upheaval several years ago — a co-founder split that could have ended the firm but may have ultimately strengthened it. At a minimum, Drive achieved something newsworthy in today's venture landscape this past May. The firm returned $500 million to investors in a single week, distributing nearly $140 million worth of Root Insurance shares within days of cashing out of Austin-based Thoughtful Automation and another undisclosed company. It could be seen as a gimmick, sure, but limited partners were undoubtedly pleased. 'I'm unaware of any other venture firm having been able to achieve that kind of liquidity recently,' said Chris Olsen, Drive's co-founder and now sole managing partner, who spoke to TechCrunch from the firm's offices in Columbus's Short North neighborhood. It's a remarkable turnaround for a firm that faced existential questions just three years ago when Olsen and his co-founder Mark Kvamme — both former Sequoia Capital partners — went their separate ways. The split, which surprised the firm's investors, saw Kvamme eventually launch the Ohio Fund, a broader investment vehicle focused on the state's economic development that includes real estate, infrastructure, and manufacturing alongside technology investments. Drive's recent success stems from what Olsen calls a deliberately contrarian strategy in an industry preoccupied with 'unicorns' and 'decacorns' — companies valued at $1 billion and $10 billion, respectively. 'If you were to just read the newspapers or listen to coffee shops on Sand Hill Road, everyone always talks about the $50 billion or $100 billion outcomes,' Olsen said. 'But the reality is, while those outcomes do happen, they're really rare. In the last 20 years, there have only been 12 outcomes in America over $50 billion.' By contrast, he noted, there have been 127 IPOs at $3 billion or more, plus hundreds of M&A events at that level. 'If you're able to exit companies at $3 billion, then you're able to do something that happens every single month,' he said. That rationale underpinned the Thoughtful Automation exit, which Olsen described as 'near fund-returning' despite being 'below a billion dollars.' The AI healthcare automation company was sold to private equity firm New Mountain Capital, which combined it with two other companies to form Smarter Technologies. Drive owned 'multiples' of the typical Silicon Valley ownership stake in the company, said Olsen, who added that Drive's typical ownership stake is around 30% on average compared to a Valley firm's 10% — often because it is the sole venture investor across numerous funding rounds. 'We were the only venture firm who invested in that company,' Olsen said of Thoughtful Automation, which was previously backed by New Mountain, the PE firm. 'About 20% of the companies in our portfolio today, we are the sole venture firm in those businesses.' Portfolio Wins and Losses Drive's track record includes both big successes and also stumbles. The firm was an early investor in Duolingo, backing the language-learning platform when it was pre-revenue after Olsen and Kvamme met founder Luis von Ahn at a bar in Pittsburgh, where Duolingo is based. Today, Duolingo trades on NASDAQ with a market cap of nearly $18 billion. The firm also invested in Vast Data, a data storage platform last valued at $9 billion in late 2023 (and is reportedly fundraising right now), and Drive made money on the recent Root Insurance distribution despite that company's rocky public market performance since its late 2020 IPO. But Drive also experienced the spectacular failure of Olive AI, a Columbus-based healthcare automation startup that raised over $900 million and was valued at $4 billion before eventually selling portions of its business in a fire sale. 'You have to be able to produce returns in bad markets as well as good markets,' Olsen said. 'When markets really get tested is when there's not as much liquidity.' What sets Drive apart, Olsen argues, is its focus on companies building outside Silicon Valley's hyper-competitive ecosystem. The firm now has employees in six cities — Columbus, Austin, Boulder, Chicago, Atlanta, and Toronto — and says it backs founders who would otherwise face a choice between building near their customers or their investors. It's Drive's secret sauce, he suggests. 'Early-stage companies that are based outside of Silicon Valley have a higher bar. They have to be a better business to garner a venture investment from a venture firm in Silicon Valley,' Olsen said. 'The same thing applies to us with companies in Silicon Valley. For us to invest in a company in Silicon Valley, it has a higher bar.' Much of the firm's portfolio centers not on companies trying to come up with something entirely novel, but instead on those applying tech to traditional industries that coastal VCs might overlook. Drive has invested in an autonomous welding company, for example, and what Olsen calls 'next-generation dental insurance' — sectors that arguably represent America's $18 trillion economy beyond Silicon Valley's tech darlings. Whether that focus — or Drive's momentum — translates into a big new fund for Drive remains to be seen. The firm is currently managing assets that it raised when Kvamme was still on board, and according to Olsen, it has 30% left to invest of its current fund, a $1 billion vehicle announced in June 2022. Asked about cash-on-cash returns to date, Olsen said that with $2.2 billion in assets under management across all of Drive's funds, all are 'top quartile funds' with 'north of 4x net on our most mature funds' and 'continuing to grow from there.' In the meantime, Drive's thesis about Columbus as a legitimate tech hub received further validation this week when Palmer Luckey, Peter Thiel, and other tech billionaires announced plans to launch Erebor, a crypto-focused bank headquartered in Columbus. 'When we started Drive in 2012, people thought we were nuts,' Olsen said. 'Now you're seeing literally the people I think of as being the smartest minds in technology — whether it's Elon Musk or Larry Ellison or Peter Thiel — moving out of Silicon Valley and opening massive presences in different cities.' Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data

Drive Capital's second act – how the Columbus venture firm found success after a split
Drive Capital's second act – how the Columbus venture firm found success after a split

TechCrunch

time2 hours ago

  • TechCrunch

Drive Capital's second act – how the Columbus venture firm found success after a split

The venture capital world has always had a hot-and-cold relationship with the Midwest. Investors rush in during boom times, then retreat to the coasts when markets turn sour. For Columbus, Ohio-based Drive Capital, this cycle of attention and disinterest played out against the backdrop of its own internal upheaval several years ago — a co-founder split that could have ended the firm but may have ultimately strengthened it. At a minimum, Drive achieved something newsworthy in today's venture landscape this past May. The firm returned $500 million to investors in a single week, distributing nearly $140 million worth of Root Insurance shares within days of cashing out of Austin-based Thoughtful Automation and another undisclosed company. It could be seen as a gimmick, sure, but limited partners were undoubtedly pleased. 'I'm unaware of any other venture firm having been able to achieve that kind of liquidity recently,' said Chris Olsen, Drive's co-founder and now sole managing partner, who spoke to TechCrunch from the firm's offices in Columbus's Short North neighborhood. It's a remarkable turnaround for a firm that faced existential questions just three years ago when Olsen and his co-founder Mark Kvamme — both former Sequoia Capital partners — went their separate ways. The split, which surprised the firm's investors, saw Kvamme eventually launch the Ohio Fund, a broader investment vehicle focused on the state's economic development that includes real estate, infrastructure, and manufacturing alongside technology investments. Drive's recent success stems from what Olsen calls a deliberately contrarian strategy in an industry preoccupied with 'unicorns' and 'decacorns' — companies valued at $1 billion and $10 billion, respectively. 'If you were to just read the newspapers or listen to coffee shops on Sand Hill Road, everyone always talks about the $50 billion or $100 billion outcomes,' Olsen said. 'But the reality is, while those outcomes do happen, they're really rare. In the last 20 years, there have only been 12 outcomes in America over $50 billion.' By contrast, he noted, there have been 127 IPOs at $3 billion or more, plus hundreds of M&A events at that level. 'If you're able to exit companies at $3 billion, then you're able to do something that happens every single month,' he said. Techcrunch event Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW That rationale underpinned the Thoughtful Automation exit, which Olsen described as 'near fund-returning' despite being 'below a billion dollars.' The AI healthcare automation company was sold to private equity firm New Mountain Capital, which combined it with two other companies to form Smarter Technologies. Drive owned 'multiples' of the typical Silicon Valley ownership stake in the company, said Olsen, who added that Drive's typical ownership stake is around 30% on average compared to a Valley firm's 10% — often because it is the sole venture investor across numerous funding rounds. 'We were the only venture firm who invested in that company,' Olsen said of Thoughtful Automation, which was previously backed by New Mountain, the PE firm. 'About 20% of the companies in our portfolio today, we are the sole venture firm in those businesses.' Portfolio Wins and Losses Drive's track record includes both big successes and also stumbles. The firm was an early investor in Duolingo, backing the language-learning platform when it was pre-revenue after Olsen and Kvamme met founder Luis von Ahn at a bar in Pittsburgh, where Duolingo is based. Today, Duolingo trades on NASDAQ with a market cap of nearly $18 billion. The firm also invested in Vast Data, a data storage platform last valued at $9 billion in late 2023 (and is reportedly fundraising right now), and Drive made money on the recent Root Insurance distribution despite that company's rocky public market performance since its late 2020 IPO. But Drive also experienced the spectacular failure of Olive AI, a Columbus-based healthcare automation startup that raised over $900 million and was valued at $4 billion before eventually selling portions of its business in a fire sale. 'You have to be able to produce returns in bad markets as well as good markets,' Olsen said. 'When markets really get tested is when there's not as much liquidity.' What sets Drive apart, Olsen argues, is its focus on companies building outside Silicon Valley's hyper-competitive ecosystem. The firm now has employees in six cities — Columbus, Austin, Boulder, Chicago, Atlanta, and Toronto — and says it backs founders who would otherwise face a choice between building near their customers or their investors. It's Drive's secret sauce, he suggests. 'Early-stage companies that are based outside of Silicon Valley have a higher bar. They have to be a better business to garner a venture investment from a venture firm in Silicon Valley,' Olsen said. 'The same thing applies to us with companies in Silicon Valley. For us to invest in a company in Silicon Valley, it has a higher bar.' Much of the firm's portfolio centers not on companies trying to come up with something entirely novel, but instead on those applying tech to traditional industries that coastal VCs might overlook. Drive has invested in an autonomous welding company, for example, and what Olsen calls 'next-generation dental insurance' — sectors that arguably represent America's $18 trillion economy beyond Silicon Valley's tech darlings. Whether that focus — or Drive's momentum — translates into a big new fund for Drive remains to be seen. The firm is currently managing assets that it raised when Kvamme was still on board, and according to Olsen, it has 30% left to invest of its current fund, a $1 billion vehicle announced in June 2022. Asked about cash-on-cash returns to date, Olsen said that with $2.2 billion in assets under management across all of Drive's funds, all are 'top quartile funds' with 'north of 4x net on our most mature funds' and 'continuing to grow from there.' In the meantime, Drive's thesis about Columbus as a legitimate tech hub received further validation this week when Palmer Luckey, Peter Thiel, and other tech billionaires announced plans to launch Erebor, a crypto-focused bank headquartered in Columbus. 'When we started Drive in 2012, people thought we were nuts,' Olsen said. 'Now you're seeing literally the people I think of as being the smartest minds in technology — whether it's Elon Musk or Larry Ellison or Peter Thiel — moving out of Silicon Valley and opening massive presences in different cities.'

Modi and Milei meet in Argentina ahead of BRICS summit
Modi and Milei meet in Argentina ahead of BRICS summit

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Modi and Milei meet in Argentina ahead of BRICS summit

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Argentine President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires on Saturday, urging the expansion of New Delhi's preferential trade deal with South America's Mercosur bloc. The bilateral talks with Milei are the latest in Modi's whistle-stop diplomatic tour culminating in the summit of BRICS emerging economies starting on Sunday in Brazil. Diplomats from both countries at the meeting, which included a lunch, decided to "deepen bilateral relations and commercial ties," according to a statement from the Argentine presidency. Indian foreign ministry diplomat Periasamy Kumaran told reporters Modi "requested Argentina's support in expanding the India-Mercosur preferential trade agreement." The Mercosur regional trade bloc, comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia, is seeking closer ties with Asian economies in the face of Trump's global trade war. "The two leaders discussed the necessity of diversifying and expanding bilateral trade" in sectors including defence, technology and health, said Kumaran. They also touched upon cooperation in the energy sector, including gas and petrol, as well as lithium, a key mineral for the clean energy transition. Argentina is the world's fifth largest producer of lithium, according to the US Geological Survey. "Excellent meeting with President Javier Milei of Argentina," Modi wrote on X of the leaders' second bilateral talks. "We have covered significant ground in our bilateral relations, but we agree that the journey ahead is even more promising!" India was Argentina's fifth largest trading partner in 2024, with bilateral trade up 33 percent, according to figures from the Indian external affairs ministry. tev/nn/mr/ib/aks/mlm Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

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