Singapore’s Una Brands raises $40m in one of the region’s largest seed rounds

Singapore-based ecommerce aggregator Una Brands said it has raised US$40 million in its seed round of equity and debt financing, marking one of the biggest seed funding rounds in the region.

From left: Una Brands co-founders Tobias Heusch, Kiren Tanna, and Kushal Patel / Photo credits: Una Brands

Investors in the round include 500 Startups, Kingsway Capital, 468 Capital, Presight Capital, and Global Founders Capital, according to a statement. It also saw participation from Maximilian Bittner, current CEO of Vestiaire Collective and former CEO of Lazada.

Una Brands is a company that acquires ecommerce brands based in Asia Pacific. It uses tech to optimize and automate company identification, product placement, and marketing across a broad range of distribution channels.

The startup was founded last year by Kiren Tanna, former CEO of Rocket Internet Asia and the founder of Foodpanda and Zen Rooms. He is backed by a team of four other co-founders spread across Asia whose collective expertise spans ecommerce, operations, data analytics, private equity, and investment banking.

Una Brands said it will use the funds to acquire companies that generate between US$300,000 and US$20 million in annual revenue. These are platform-agnostic companies that have presence in platforms such as Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, and Shopify.

The company shared it has already closed acquisition deals with “several” businesses in the region and is currently expanding.

“Ultimately, with this new round of investment, we want to scale our business very rapidly in the region. We aim to become the biggest online retailer in APAC,” said Tanna.