One of the most significant trends in investing over the past year has been the rise of businesses that integrate multiple small e-commerce brands. Consolidating Amazon Marketplace merchants is the primary emphasis of many of the most famous new businesses in this industry, such as Thrasio, Berlin Brands Group, and Branded Group. Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee, Rakuten, and eBay are some e-commerce platforms merchants in the una asiapacific 40mshutechcrunch area use.
However, the e-commerce landscape in this region is more fragmented than in other regions of the world. To fill this void, Una Brands was established. Kiren Tanna, who was previously the chief executive officer of Rocket Internet Asia and is now one of the company’s co-founders, stated that the startup is “platform agnostic,” meaning that it searches across multiple marketplaces and e-commerce platforms (such as Shopify, Magento, or WooCommerce) for potential acquisitions.
Una announced that it has completed a $40 million equity and debt round. Investors include:
- 500 Startups, Kingsway Capital
- 468 Capital
- Presight Capital, Global Founders Capital,
Maximilian Bitner, the former CEO of Lazada, currently owns the same role at secondhand fashion platform Vestiaire Collective. Other investors include 500 Startups, Kingsway Capital, 468 Capital, and Global Founders Capital.
Una Asiapacific 40mshutechcrunch – Intricate Details:
Una did not make public the proportion of equity to debt that was included in the round. Una, in line with many other ecommerce aggregators, including Thrasio, sought debt financing to acquire brand names because doing so does not result in dilution.
Additionally, the financing will be utilized to rapidly hire new staff to examine the brands already in the company’s pipeline. Currently, Una has staff in Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia, and the company intends to expand throughout Southeast Asia before entering Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.
Along with Adrian Johnston, Kushal Patel, Tobias Heusch, and Srinivasan Shridharan, Tanna was one of the founders of Una. Tanna is also responsible for the launch of Foodpanda and ZEN Rooms. According to his estimation, more than ten million third-party vendors are operating on various platforms in the asiapacific 40mshutechcrunch region.
Una is interested in companies that generate between $300,000 and $20 million in yearly revenue and is open to a wide variety of sectors so long as the brands in question have robust SKUs and minimal levels of seasonality (for example, it avoids fast fashion). The prices offered for it range anywhere from $600,000 to $3 million.
Tanna stated that Una will continue to operate its acquisitions under their previous brand names “because we don’t modify what’s working.” It does things that are tough for small companies, particularly those led by just one or two people, such as expanding into more distribution channels and nations. This is how it adds value.
Tanna elucidated, “For instance, in Indonesia, there are at least five or six significant platforms that you should be on, and often the vendors aren’t doing that; thus, that’s something that we do.” “The second is cross-border in Southeast Asia, which merchants frequently cannot perform themselves due to constraints surrounding customs, import limitations, and charges. Our staff has previous experience in this area, and we intend to bring it to the table for all businesses.
Amazon FBA roll-up players have the benefit of being able to swiftly measure the success of brands in their pipeline of possible acquisitions thanks to Amazon Marketplace analytics. Una works with a significantly more fragmented data sources because it deals with various markets and platforms.
This includes data regarding revenue, costs, rankings, and customer evaluations. The company is now working on developing technology that will automate its appraisal process, and in addition, it will have local teams in each of its markets as it prepares to grow up. Even though Una works with several different e-commerce platforms, according to Tanna, the company can still close a purchase in under five weeks, with an offer typically being made within two or three days.
Many business owners in nations like the United States, where Amazon is the preeminent e-commerce player, build FBA businesses to sell them for a profit within a few years. This is a trend that Thrasio and other Amazon roll-up startups are capitalizing on. However, because this notion is not as prevalent in the regions served by Una, the company provides a variety of team arrangements to attract prospective sellers.
Conclusion:
UNA conducts profit-sharing models with sellers, meaning that they receive a lump sum payment for most of their business at the beginning, and then collect more money as Una builds up the brand. This is even though Una acquires all of the brands that it sells. According to Tanna, Una typically continues to work with sellers on a consultative basis for three to six months after a deal has been completed.