Ex-Lazada CEO Pierre Poignant’s firm bags $150m in fundraising

Branded Group, a digital consumer products platform focusing on home, lifestyle, and leisure markets, announced that it has raised US$150 million in investment led by Target Global.

Declaration Partners, Tiger Global, Kreos Capital, Lurra Capital, Regah Ventures, Kima Ventures, and Vine Ventures joined in the round as well.

The fundraise also saw participation from individual investors including Zynga founder Mark Pincus, Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer, Lazada co-founder Maximilian Bittner, as well as business leaders and former executives from Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba.

Branded Group CEO and co-founder Pierre Poignant / Photo credit: Branded Group

Founded in the second half of 2020, Branded partners with founders of third-party brands on Amazon and other marketplaces to help them scale globally through acquisitions, investments, improved operations, sourcing, and marketing.

The company was co-founded by Pierre Poignant, Michael Ronen, as well as Target Global itself. 

With a presence in Paris, Berlin, New York, Silicon Valley, and Miami, the company claims to have acquired 20 global brands collectively generating US$150 million in gross revenues.

Poignant, who serves as Branded’s CEO, was the co-founder of ecommerce firm Lazada, which was acquired by Chinese tech titan Alibaba.

Meanwhile, Ronen, the firm’s president, brings his expertise in growth investing from his experience as a founding managing partner of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank’s Vision Fund in Silicon Valley. Prior to SoftBank, he was a partner and chief operating officer of the global technology group at Goldman Sachs.

“We are facing a generational opportunity to build Branded into a digital-first consumer product goods ecommerce platform, distilling the best among the US$300 billion in revenue generated by businesses already thriving on Amazon’s marketplace,” said Ronen.