Oico

Overview

Oico was a Summer 2020 YC marketplace that let Brazilian contractors buy construction materials from many suppliers through one order and one delivery workflow.^[1] Pedro Rocha and Pedro Dellagnelo launched the company in São Paulo in 2020, raised R$38.5 million across two disclosed rounds, and built a catalog that reached 100,000 items from more than 1,000 suppliers.^[2]

The company removed complexity from the buyer's desk by absorbing it into its own operations. Every additional supplier improved selection while creating more pickups, invoice coordination, substitutions, and delivery constraints. Oico charged a transaction commission, but the operational work attached to each order kept margins thin. When seed funding tightened, the marketplace could not finance its way to the density it needed. Oico paused in May 2023 and dissolved through voluntary liquidation in April 2024.^[3][4]

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Founding Story

Rocha and Dellagnelo entered construction as outsiders. Rocha had spent the previous decade in agriculture and startups. Dellagnelo came from procurement technology. Both were first-time founders, according to Bloomberg Línea.^[5] Public sources do not establish how the pair met.

They began interviewing contractors in 2019. One customer managed more than 50 active sites and placed dozens of orders each week. That volume magnified a familiar routine: buyers called or messaged many local suppliers, reconciled product descriptions, paid separately, and waited for unreliable deliveries. Rocha told Startups: “A construção civil é uma indústria que está uns 20 anos atrasada na forma de fazer compras. A forma que eles atuam é o equivalente a ter os imãs colados na geladeira para pedir pizza.”^[2]

The pair named the company after oikos, the Greek word for home.^[5] The initial insight was strong. Brazil's construction-material retail base was highly fragmented, while each store stocked only part of a job's bill of materials. Dellagnelo told Nextmv in 2021: “The construction material industry is super fragmented in Brazil. We're simplifying the whole supply chain.”^[6]

Oico incorporated in March 2020 and joined YC's Summer 2020 batch.^[4] It raised an R$8.5 million pre-seed from Maya Capital and FJ Labs, then R$30 million in January 2022 from a group led by Valor Capital with Tiger Global, CSN Inova Ventures, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Maya, and FJ Labs.^[2] CSN's own filing confirms its venture arm invested in OICO Holdings during 2021.^[7]

Timeline

• 2019: Rocha and Dellagnelo begin studying contractor procurement.^[5]
• March 2020: Oico's Brazilian operating company opens; the startup later joins YC S20.^[4]
• 2020: Maya Capital and FJ Labs provide an R$8.5 million pre-seed.^[2]
• August 2021: The catalog passes 70,000 products from 500 stores; Oico automates route planning with Nextmv.^[6]
• January 2022: Oico announces an R$30 million seed, 100 customers, 100,000 products, more than 1,000 suppliers, and 40 employees.^[2]
• May 2023: The company pauses the marketplace, lays off 40 people, and retains 15 to seek another model.^[3]
• April 2024: The operating company is dissolved through voluntary liquidation.^[4]

What They Built

A contractor started with a bill of materials. Oico matched those line items against its supplier catalog, reviewed availability, confirmed the order, collected one payment, and coordinated delivery to the job site. The company covered categories from plumbing and electrical parts to lighting and insulation. By January 2022, its catalog held 100,000 products from more than 1,000 suppliers.^[2]

Oico avoided inventory ownership. Suppliers sent goods into a cross-docking flow, and transport partners handled the vehicles. Oico planned the pickups and last mile. This reduced inventory-price exposure but left the company responsible for coordination across products, stores, trucks, and sites.