Across Brazil, small and medium size retailers form the backbone of local commerce. Yet, many operate within fragmented supply chains and face persistent working capital constraints. Often too small to meet minimum order volumes or credit requirements set by major brands, these businesses — frequently family-run — rely on informal sourcing channels that limit access to consistent, high-quality inventory. As a result, retailers struggle to compete on product assortment, pricing, and reliability.
We believe BackChannel is changing that. As a B2B marketplace for surplus goods, BackChannel connects small retailers in Brazil with high-quality, branded goods from major manufacturers, helping them grow their businesses, improve margins, and operate more sustainably. Accion Ventures is proud to invest in BackChannel as the company works to create an efficient bridge between supply and demand.
Reducing the financial and environmental cost of unsold inventory
BackChannel’s closed marketplace enables vetted retailers to purchase unsold inventory from leading brands at discounted prices, while allowing sellers to maintain control over how and where their products are distributed. Brands can define parameters such as geographic restrictions or resale channel limitations, helping protect brand positioning and avoid conflict with existing partners. Without these controls, manufacturers could risk undermining their core business and often prefer to dispose of excess inventory altogether. BackChannel’s structure offers an alternative, seeking to transform excess inventory from a balance sheet liability into a productive asset while giving compliant retailers access to high-quality goods that would otherwise remain out of reach.
By formalizing what has historically been a fragmented and informal market, BackChannel enables retailers and brands to transact with greater reliability and transparency. Digitizing inventory sourcing reduces uncertainty around product availability and pricing, allowing retailers to plan purchases more confidently, improve margins, and increase sales consistency. Just as importantly, by creating a viable commercial path for excess goods, the platform helps prevent unsold inventory from being destroyed or sent to landfills, reducing the environmental footprint associated with overproduction and disposal. Redirecting excess stock back into productive use extends product lifecycles, lowers the volume of goods requiring resource-intensive disposal, and supports a more circular retail system. In doing so, we believe BackChannel transforms surplus inventory from a source of environmental strain into both a commercial opportunity and a measurable reduction in waste.
Formalizing inventory channels enables access to working capital
While access to quality inventory addresses the sourcing gap, the more persistent constraint for many MSMEs is working capital. Inventory purchases often require significant upfront payments, forcing retailers to tie up cash that could otherwise support day-to-day operations or additional stock. Even strong-performing businesses may limit order sizes or delay purchases due to liquidity constraints, resulting in missed sales opportunities.
To address this, BackChannel is building a financial services layer on top of its marketplace that seeks to enable retailers to access flexible payment terms directly at the point of purchase. By reducing the upfront cash burden associated with inventory, the platform allows retailers to place larger orders, restock more frequently, and grow without disproportionately increasing balance sheet pressure.
One early customer we spoke with, the owner-operator of a shoe retailer, shared that BackChannel provided their first access to formal credit. That financing enabled them to expand inventory and open their first physical storefront. By combining marketplace access with embedded credit, BackChannel aims to increase the purchasing power of MSMEs and enables independent retailers to participate more fully in supply chains that have historically been difficult for smaller businesses to access.
Creating an agentic marketplace that empowers retailers
At the core of BackChannel’s platform is technology designed to make surplus inventory, traditionally opaque and difficult to price, easier for retailers to evaluate and purchase at scale. The company is developing AI-driven tools that standardize product data, benchmark pricing for out-of-season goods, and improve how excess inventory maps to retailer demand and ERP workflows. This reduces the friction typically associated with sourcing surplus goods, allowing retailers to make more informed purchasing decisions across large and varied product catalogs.
We believe BackChannel represents the next evolution of B2B marketplaces, where AI enables fragmented inventory to be transacted more efficiently across a distributed base of smaller buyers. Surplus goods are often difficult to value due to inconsistent pricing histories, varied product conditions, and limited visibility into comparable transactions. By improving pricing transparency and matching inventory to relevant buyers, BackChannel helps convert previously illiquid stock into a more standardized and accessible category of goods for independent retailers.
A core team with circular economy marketplace expertise
BackChannel is led by a team with deep experience building circular-economy marketplaces in Brazil. Co-founders Guillermo Freire and Guillermo Arslanian previously built and scaled Trocafone, a secondary marketplace for used mobile devices that helped extend product lifecycles and reduce electronic waste. With BackChannel, the team is applying that marketplace experience to a new category, seeking to ensure that surplus inventory reaches end consumers rather than being destroyed or written off.
As the platform scales, we believe the network effects become increasingly reinforcing. More sellers bring greater breadth of inventory, attracting additional retailers seeking consistent access to branded goods. At the same time, embedded financing expands retailers’ purchasing capacity, supporting higher transaction volumes and improving inventory turnover for suppliers. Together, these dynamics help reduce waste, improve unit economics for MSMEs, and create more efficient distribution pathways for excess goods. Accion Ventures is proud to partner with BackChannel as they build infrastructure that aims to expand inventory access and financial opportunity for Brazil’s small retailers.
