Transforming Retail for Women Entrepreneurs
For many women running shops selling clothing, accessories, or beauty products, restocking inventory often requires closing their businesses for hours, travelling to wholesale centres, and carrying cash—bringing with it the risk of theft or fraud. Rintin, a B2B digital shopping platform, aims to alleviate some of these challenges by connecting micro-entrepreneurs with verified manufacturers and suppliers.
This startup, founded by Gastón Guillermo Greco and Quinto Van Peborgh, consolidates a variety of products from different suppliers on a single platform, powered by artificial intelligence. It also provides tools to manage businesses and financing options. The primary focus is on women engaged in the informal economy, many of whom lack access to bank credit or trustworthy suppliers.
Greco’s familiarity with this dynamic stems from his youth, accompanying his father, who owned a small business in Argentina, as he sought out suppliers and negotiated prices. “I have always been closely tied to working behind a counter in various types of businesses,” he explains in an interview.
This background helped shape Rintin’s mission: to empower women entrepreneurs by fostering business growth and enhancing their quality of life. In Mexico, approximately 13.5 million women work in the informal sector, often travelling from remote municipalities to wholesale districts in Mexico City, such as Tepito, La Lagunilla, or the Historic Centre.
Reducing Barriers to Access
“Entrepreneurs in Latin America live day by day; if they can save five pesos, they take the subway or train to source their merchandise,” Greco elaborates. He recognised the critical importance of competitive pricing, noting that a significant part of Rintin’s early developments focused on matching or bettering the prices these women could find by traveling to the city centre.
Rintin offers a solution by enabling users to place orders directly from their mobile devices, providing access to a catalogue of products from verified suppliers. The platform boasts over 15,000 items and offers cash-on-delivery payment options—a strategy designed to mitigate the distrust often associated with purchasing via WhatsApp. The decision to implement cash-on-delivery stemmed from identifying that many potential customers hesitated to shop online due to previous experiences of fraud.
This payment method allows entrepreneurs to receive products at their doorstep before making payment. Over time, it has also helped the company gain insights into user behaviours, revealing that many were not home as they were working at markets or in small shops. “This initial phase was crucial in building the community we have today,” Greco adds.
The company ensures products are inspected before dispatch and acts as a mediator between suppliers and buyers, seeking to prevent losses from fraudulent transactions or misrepresented goods.
Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Financial Opportunities
In addition to streamlining the purchasing process, Rintin employs artificial intelligence tools to analyse user behaviour and provide financing options. For informal sector entrepreneurs, accessing formal credit can be challenging, as they often lack the banking history, RFC, or documentation that financial institutions typically require. Rintin aims to establish a financial profile using alternative data points, such as purchase frequency, platform activity, and business information.
Greco notes that the company began exploring credit options a year and a half ago after identifying a lack of financing as a significant barrier for users. “We are working to enable them to start their businesses with a capital of 1,000 to 5,000 pesos on their first order,” he explains.
The platform also analyses images of physical stores to gauge inventory levels, further informing their financing decisions. According to the co-founder, users can start accessing credit after their third or fourth order, without needing RFC, CURP, or a formal financial history. “The company’s vision is to become the bank for small female entrepreneurs in Latin America,” he asserts.
Furthermore, Rintin utilises AI to keep its product catalogue up-to-date, especially in the fast-changing fashion sector, updating around 25,000 items weekly. The company also employs AI agents via WhatsApp, allowing users to place orders through messages, receive personalised recommendations, and shop without navigating a complex website.
Empowering Through Education
Complementing its digital tools, Rintin offers the Rintin Academy, a free training space that provides resources on pricing products, managing business accounts, selling, and promoting on social media platforms like TikTok. This initiative aims to support entrepreneurs who are often just beginning to utilise digital tools in their businesses. “We start from the basics,” Greco states. “Some individuals do not use smartphones or lack internet access in their regions.”
The Rintin Academy leverages WhatsApp groups where users can share experiences, questions, and recommendations. The company has established 50 groups, each with up to 1,000 participants, including specialists, team members, and the entrepreneurs themselves.
“One thing we realised is that entrepreneurs, particularly women in this segment, often feel isolated,” Greco notes. Consequently, a key objective of the community is to help them learn how others organise their sales and tackle similar challenges.
Among the tools offered is a personalised digital catalogue, allowing each entrepreneur to showcase their products via a shareable link on social media or WhatsApp. The platform also includes features for tracking sales, purchases, and expenses directly from their mobile devices. This idea emerged after the team observed some entrepreneurs managing their accounts on paper. Rintin thus developed a tool to digitise inventory, maintain basic business records, and create a page for receiving orders.
Future Aspirations and Growth
Greco and Van Peborgh are eager to expand the product range to include categories such as cosmetics and electronics, with plans to introduce Rintin in Colombia and Argentina. To facilitate this expansion, the company recently secured a funding round of $6.2 million, with participation from investors such as Newtopia VC, Latin Leap, and Amador Holdings, alongside entrepreneurs and investors affiliated with companies like Clip, Kueski, Globant, Etsy, Auth0, Mural, and Oportun.
However, for Greco, the impact of the startup extends beyond mere sales figures; each improvement translates into increased time and stability for entrepreneurs and their families.