E-commerce aggregator Una Brands raises $15M Series A five months after its launch – TechCrunch

Una Brands, the e-commerce aggregator targeted on Asia-Pacific manufacturers, introduced right this moment it has raised $15 million for its Sequence A. The complete-equity spherical was co-led by White Star Capital and Alpha JWC, together with participation from returning traders and Ninjavan co-founder Alvin Teo.

This information comes only five months after Una launched with a $40 million equity and debt seed round. The startup has not disclosed the ratio of debt and fairness (like many different e-commerce aggregators, Una makes use of debt funding to purchase manufacturers as a result of it’s non-dilutive). Co-founder and chief govt officer Kiren Tanna advised TechCrunch the Sequence A is a priced spherical with a valuation greater than 5 instances Una’s final funding. Moreover elevating fairness, Una additionally prolonged its debt facility dimension from Claret Capital.

“We’ve a really robust pipeline of manufacturers throughout APAC that we’re engaged on, and as we’ve got executed some offers already, we’re seeing bigger and bigger manufacturers which can be approaching us,” mentioned Tanna. The Sequence A was raised to speed up the expansion of its model portfolio and Una’s operations, and it plans to lift additional debt and fairness, he added. The corporate now has 90 crew members in seven places of work throughout the Asia-Pacific: Singapore, Australia, India, China, Indonesia and Malaysia.

In contrast to many different e-commerce aggregators that target Amazon sellers, Una describes itself as “sector agnostic” due to the variety of marketplaces used throughout APAC, together with Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee, Rakuten and eBay. Una appears to be like for worthwhile manufacturers that make between $1 million and $50 million in income per yr. After acquisitions, Una grows manufacturers by including new distribution channels or increasing them into new international locations.

Since launching, Una has purchased greater than 15 manufacturers, and says the primary ones it acquired have seen a 50% enhance in gross sales and income. The common EBITDA of its acquired manufacturers are about 26%, placing the corporate on a path towards profitability, mentioned Tanna.

He added that Una is constructing expertise to assist its manufacturers scale. Since most aren’t on Amazon and lots of are seller-fulfilled, generally from their properties, Una transitions them to its skilled warehouse achievement infrastructure. Tanna mentioned the corporate is constructing its personal expertise to get transaction-level knowledge from a number of channels to combine it into its ERP system and monitor operational efficiency.

In an announcement, Alpha JWC managing associate Jefrey Joe mentioned, “Digitally native manufacturers in APAC is a secular pattern rising at 4x the speed of these within the West. We imagine Una’s worth proposition will resonate with manufacturers throughout the area and additional propel the expansion of D2C in international locations comparable to Indonesia.”