Marcos Galperin
MercadoLibre
Latin America’s dominant e-commerce and fintech platform · Buenos Aires, Argentina
Portrait: [argentina.gob.ar Gobierno argentino] / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
The founder
Marcos Galperin, a Wharton undergrad and Stanford MBA, co-founded MercadoLibre in a Buenos Aires garage in 1999 with several Stanford classmates, building it into Latin America’s leading online marketplace and, later, one of its largest fintech businesses (Mercado Pago). He served as CEO for 26 years before stepping down on January 1, 2026 to become Executive Chairman, handing the CEO role to Ariel Szarfsztejn.
How it was taken public
MercadoLibre listed on Nasdaq on August 10, 2007 at $18 a share, raising roughly $333 million — one of the first major Latin American tech IPOs on a US exchange. The company has since grown into a regional giant valued at over $100 billion.
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In the news
Coverage of the MercadoLibre deal from independent outlets — read the original reporting, not just our summary.
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