About Merco

We tried to
build a brand.
We couldn’t find
the factory.

Merco didn’t start as a platform. It started as a problem we hit ourselves — trying to source our own apparel brand from Latin America and finding no way in. We built the company we wished had existed. This is how we got here.

72h

avg DDS prep time

4

Mercosur origins

7

verification criteria

12%

tariff eliminated by 2035

Our story

How we got here.

01

We wanted to build a brand.

It started selfishly. We set out to found our own mountainwear label — technical outerwear, made well, made responsibly. The product was the easy part. The factory was where everything stalled.

02

We couldn’t find the factory.

We went looking for Latin-American manufacturers and found almost no way in. We’d always heard the reputation — Colombia, Envigado, Medellín, some of the best apparel work anywhere — but there was no door to knock on. No directory, no intro, no reply. The talent was real and completely unreachable.

03

So we dug — and found an opening.

The deeper we researched, the clearer it got: this trade is largely untouched, and a structural shift was arriving with EU–Mercosur. A whole sourcing region was about to get dramatically more viable, and almost no one was set up to use it.

04

And textiles kept getting left out.

We’re Swiss. Switzerland already runs an open trade corridor with these countries — for nearly everything except apparel. Across agreement after agreement, textiles are the category that gets carved out, skipped, left behind. The lane exists. It just isn’t built for what we wanted to make.

Switzerland ⇄ LATAM corridor
Goods already flowing Textiles — left out

Switzerland's corridor with these countries is already open — for almost everything except apparel. That's the lane we're building.

05

That’s the gap we’re here to close.

Merco is the brand we wished existed when we couldn’t reach a single factory. A compliant, auditable, end-to-end path from Latin-American manufacturers to European and US buyers — built precisely for the category everyone else leaves out.

Why now

The lane just opened — and the rules got serious.

The EU-Mercosur FTA entered force in January 2026. At the same time, US Customs intensified UFLPA enforcement against LATAM supply chains. For buyers on both sides of the Atlantic, the opportunity and the compliance burden arrived together.

EU-bound goods now need EUDR geo-polygon data and a filed Due Diligence Statement; CSDDD adds supply-chain risk scoring from 2027. US-bound goods face a rebuttable presumption of forced labor — the burden of proof sits with the importer. Rules of Origin must be confirmed per HS code, and paying LATAM suppliers means cross-currency wires with no recourse.

Merco closes that gap as a workflow, not a consultancy: you submit a brief, review a verified shortlist, approve documents, and confirm milestones. The platform runs the rest.

Platform model

What you pay for. What you get.

0.5%

minimum platform fee

Progressive volume-based pricing starts at 3.5% and falls to 0.5% on large orders. A flat $149 compliance fee covers EUDR due-diligence, ROO calculation, and escrow structuring. No subscription. No hidden costs.

One

consolidated manifest

LCL consolidation from up to four South American ports into one Rotterdam shipment. One set of customs documents. Four origins handled under a single booking.

Three

milestone escrow releases

Buyer funds are held in Stripe-backed escrow and released per milestone. Supplier receives payment on confirmed delivery stages. No wire transfers before goods are verified.

The people

Built by practitioners.

Finance, consulting, and LATAM on-the-ground operating experience.

CB

Colin Brotschi

CEO & Founder · Switzerland

Finance · LATAM operations · FCG Medellín

Background in Finance and Structured Products Trading. Student in International Management at ZHAW. Owner of a company in Medellín (FCG).

SK

Simon Kaiser

CCO · Switzerland

KPMG consulting

Background in Consulting at KPMG. Student in International Management at ZHAW.

TB

Tobias Burri

CFO · Switzerland

ZKB trading floor

Background in Finance on ZKB's trading floor.

Operating principles

Transparency

Every fee, every document, every compliance check is shown to the buyer. Nothing is bundled or abstracted away.

Traceability

Every order carries a full audit trail — from supplier polygon verification to final freight booking. Exportable at any time.

Responsibility boundaries

Merco handles the workflow. You retain the legal obligations. Article 4, import declarations, and duty payment are yours.

Buyer-owned decisions

Supplier selection, document approval, milestone sign-off — every consequential decision is made by you, not the platform.

Workflow-first execution

Merco is not a marketplace or a directory. It is a workflow layer that runs the operational parts so you can focus on product decisions.

Infrastructure

Connected to the standards your compliance team knows.

TRACES NT API (EUDR)ABRAPA Blockchain (Cotton)Textile Exchange V4.0UFLPA Evidentiary FrameworkCSDDD Risk MappingVISEC Argentina (Soy/Leather)

Merco handles

  • AI-assisted supplier discovery and ranking
  • EUDR geo-polygon verification (GFW data)
  • DDS drafting and TRACES NT portal filing
  • Rules of Origin documentation (EUR.1)
  • Freight rate sourcing and LCL consolidation
  • Stripe escrow holding and milestone tracking

Your obligation

  • Final supplier selection and contracting
  • EU customs import declarations
  • Import duty and VAT payment
  • Final compliance sign-off as EU operator of record
  • Goods quality inspection and acceptance

Based in: Zurich, Switzerland

Data ownership: Buyer-owned · exportable any time

Methodology: EUDR Art.10 · CSDDD Art.8 · UFLPA guidance

Payment rails: Stripe Connect · SWIFT bank wires

Free to join · No subscription

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