Rappi, iFood’s Competitor, Sued for Alleged Theft of Trade Secrets

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Simón Borrero, CEO and co-founder of Colombia-based Rappi, is accused of stealing trade secrets to develop the delivery App that competes with iFood and Uber Eats.

Three Colombian businessmen have filed a lawsuit in San Francisco. The company says the allegations are “objectively incorrect”. The company has recently dismissed six percent of employees in Latin America, including 150 in Brazil.

Bloomberg had access to the lawsuit against Rappi: It claims Borrero stole trade secrets while working for ‘Imaginamos’, a software development company based in Bogotá, Colombia.

‘Imaginamos’ was hired in 2015 to work on a delivery App that would be called Kuiky and which apparently was never released. Then, months later, Borrero started Rappi.

In his LinkedIn profile, Borrero says he founded ‘Imaginamos’ and worked there between January 2007 and December 2014; the company is still active. His position as CEO and co-founder of Rappi dates back to July 2015.

Rappi says in a statement to Bloomberg that it will “vigorously” defend itself because the allegations are “objectively incorrect”. The company did not provide details but noted that its trademark was registered in Colombia in mid-2014, as was its Internet domain.

Rappi dismisses staff and restructures

The company – co-founded by Borrero, Sebastián Mejía and Felipe Villamarin – is undergoing a reorganization. It has “decided to invest in its technology team and user experience” and dismissed six percent of its 5,000 employees in Latin America.

According to the Brazil Journal, Colombian Mejía moved to Brazil in 2019 to oversee operations closely. Rappi also operates in countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, but the São Paulo region alone accounts for over 50 percent of its revenues.

Last year, Rappi received an investment of US$1 (R$4) billion in a round led by the Japanese conglomerate Softbank. Its market value is estimated at US$2.5 billion.

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