UNA Brands is the acquirer and consolidator of e-commerce companies with small scale, across Asia along with its operation in Malaysia, Australia, and Singapore.
They work by selling the acquired companies’ products on online shopping platforms including Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, and others.
This Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator acquires complete brands and then provides a profit-sharing model to the vendors by which a fixed revenue and profit have been received by the sellers as their business grows.
Kiren Tanna, Adrian Johnston, Kushal Patel, Tobias Heusch, and Srinivasan Sridharan founded Una Brands that acquire companies that have a fixed range of revenue of only between $3 hundred thousand to $20 million and if any company has less than $3 hundred thousand of revenue, Una does not purchase that brand or company, however, there is no specified sector of the brands.
For automating the valuation process of the company, Una Brands is developing a special tool.
Details of Fundraising
The 2020 founded company announced that it has raised $40 million in a seed round of equity and debt financing and this marks the largest seed round ever done by any enterprise in the entire region of Southeast Asia.
But the e-commerce aggregator didn’t specify the details of the segregation of this capital into debt and equity.
The round was led by 500 Startups, Kingsway Capital, Presight Capital, 468 Capital, and Global Founders Capital. The participation from the current CEO of Vestiaire Collective, Maximilian Bittner has also been noticed.
Despite the sword of Covid having hanged on the company’s head still it managed to see the opportunity to raise the fund.
Kiren Tanna said that a huge surge has been made by the Covid-19 pandemic for e-commerce companies and has marked a peak demand of 100%. Many people have tasted online shopping in this lockdown phase which helps in creating a behavioral shift in the habits of consumers.
The co-founder of Una Brands, Kiren Tanna who is also the founder FoodPanda and ZEN Rooms is convinced of the massive regional growth potential of the Asia-Pacific region’s e-commerce brands as there are over 10 million of them doing business on various regional e-commerce platforms.
The co-founder of Una Brands, Kiren Tanna said that every seller in Asia is using multiple platforms to buy their products instead of just using Amazon and this is ignored by Western sellers.
A big gap has been seen in the fast-growing e-commerce market but the West’s player is confined to a single platform and is not able to look at others and this leads them to focus on the APAC, start a business and then acquire multiple sellers who are trading at a number of different platforms.
Purpose of Raising the Funds.
Una Brands aims to use the capital in purchasing and selling the Asia-Pacific region’s e-commerce brands which sell their products on leading online platforms like Amazon and Lazada.
The company said that they want to build the consumer goods conglomerate of the next generation by acquiring, scaling, and streamlining profitable brands.
The company also aims to start aggressive hiring as they want to expand their market footprint. The company currently operates in Malaysia, Australia, and Singapore but now, after this seed round, Una Brands plans to set up new operations in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other parts of Southeast Asia.
Tanna said that he wants to scale the business swiftly with the help of this new round’s capital and aims to become the giant of online retailers in the APAC region.
About 500 Startups
The 500 Startups is a capital market company that works as the seed accelerator for early-stage startups. It was founded in 2010 and has its head office in San Francisco, Calif.
The Managing Partner at 500 Startups, Khailee Ng expressed his confidence in the ability of Una Brands to achieve its goals and to give rise to a practicable player of e-commerce in the Asian-Pacific region.
He said that the co-founders of Una Brands are experienced and mature with a track record of developing speed, scale, and success.
Conclusion
Una Brands has come out of its sheath and raised $40 million in its seed round with equity and debt financing. The company refused to specify the ratio of equity and debt and also didn’t specify the valuation. Many investors participated in this seed round including 500 Startups, Kingsway Capital, Presight Capital, 468 Capital, and Global Founders Capital. The participation from the current CEO of Vestiaire Collective, Maximilian Bittner. Una Brands aims to use this capital in aggressive hiring, expanding its footprint, and in building a next-generation consumer goods conglomerate of the world.
FAQS
Ans. Una Brands aims to use this capital in aggressive hiring, expanding its footprints to Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and other parts of Southeast Asia, and building a next-generation consumer goods conglomerate of the world.
Ans. This round was led by many investors including 500 Startups, Kingsway Capital, Presight Capital, 468 Capital, and Global Founders Capital.
Ans. This is the debt and equity funding round.
Ans. Not disclosed by Una Brands.
Ans. It was founded in 2020.
