Teen sells startup to Lazada founder-backed firm for $730k

Una Brands, a Singapore-based ecommerce startup, has acquired Bellaforte, an Australian drinkware startup, for A$1 million (US$732,200).

Una Brands head of acquisitions Yenti Kushor (left) with Bellaforte founder Sam Richards / Photo credit: Una Brands

Founded by 15-year-old Sam Richards, Bellaforte sells affordable, unbreakable drinkware – which is also reusable and recyclable – via Amazon marketplace. In 2020, the startup turned profitable, which made Richards eye an exit strategy that would allow him to capitalize on this peak success.

With Una Brands’ experience in transforming startups into household names, the opportunity provided a fast and fair way to sell Bellaforte at its highest point, said the Singapore-based startup in a statement.

“I have dealt with hundreds of business owners, but Sam drove a hard bargain. He was driven and knew what he wanted. He didn’t give up until we met his number,” said Yenti Kushor, head of acquisitions at Una Brands.

With his earnings, Richards said that he will purchase a new set of headphones, a watch, and a Tesla car. He also plans to move to Singapore, where he will pursue university studies.

Una Brands is on a mission to acquire scalable brands and grow them into global, well-loved household names. It recently raised US$40 million to acquire more brands in the Asia-Pacific region.

See also: Why these ex-Carousell, Fave execs raised $36.5m to join the global Amazon roll-up frenzy

The ecommerce startup had earlier said it will acquire companies across leading platforms such as Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, and Shopify that have annual revenues between US$300,000 and US$20 million. Una Brands is backed by Maximilian Bittner, founder and former CEO of Lazada Group.

India and Southeast Asia are seeing traction in ecommerce roll-up firms, which aggregate small brands from online marketplaces and bring them under one umbrella to provide economies of scale.

See also: Roll-up ecommerce flexes its muscles in India

Based on the Thrasio approach, India alone has seen almost a dozen such startups in the past few months raising millions of dollars from marquee investors such as Tiger Global and SoftBank.

Currency converted from Australian dollar to US dollar: US$1 = A$1.36.