Companies that combine tiny e-commerce enterprises have become one of the largest fundraising trends of the past year. Thrasio, Berlin Brands Group, and Branded Group, three of the most famous firms in the area, all concentrate on bringing together Amazon Marketplace vendors. However, the Asia-Pacific region’s e-commerce market is more splintered, with merchants using different platforms, according to where they are, such as Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee, Rakuten, or eBay. Una Brands can help in this situation. The firm is “platform neutral,” according to co-founder and former Rocket Internet Asia CEO Kiren Tanna, who searches across markets (and platforms like Shopify, Magento, or WooCommerce) for possible purchases. The $40 million equity and loan round was raised by Una, the company reported today. brands asiapacific 40mshutechcrunch.
The $40 million equity and loan round was raised by Una, the company reported today. Among the investors are 500 Startups, Kingsway Capital, 468 Capital, Presight Capital, Global Founders Capital, and Maximilian Bitner, who served as CEO of Lazada before taking the same position at Vestiaire Collective, a marketplace for used clothing.
Thrasio and other Amazon roll-up firms are capitalizing on the trend that many entrepreneurs build FBA brands in nations where Amazon is the main player in e-commerce, such as the United States, intending to sell them for a profit in a few years. However, as that idea is less prevalent in Una’s marketplaces, it offers various team bargains to entice potential sellers. Even though Una buys brands outright, it also works with sellers on profit-sharing models. As a result, sellers initially receive a lump sum amount for the bulk of their business, then they receive additional money as Una grows the brand. For roughly three to six months following a transaction, according to Tanna, Una continues to advise sellers.
The ability to locate a product, sell it for four to five years, and then hopefully make a multi-million deal exit and build another product or go on vacation is something that Amazon players are quite familiar with, according to Tanna. We view this as an educational step to demonstrate how the method operates and why it makes sense to sell us because Asian vendors are less acquainted with that.