Northstar Group leads Una Brands’ latest $30m round

Photo credit: Una Brands

Singapore-based Una Brands, an ecommerce roll-up firm, announced that it has secured US$30 million in a pre-series C funding round led by Northstar Group. This new capital, which is a mix of equity and debt, brings the company’s total funds raised to US$60 million within just the past year.

The fundraise comes amid an economic downturn, which has led to global consumers cutting back on spending to cope with inflation. In addition, the ecommerce roll-up model has been facing lots of questions about sustainability as capital slows down.

“Most ecommerce aggregators are either channel-specific or geography-specific or category-specific, resulting in relatively higher susceptibility toward industry headwinds,” Kiren Tanna, CEO of Una Brands, tells Tech in Asia in an email interview.

“We have diversification in terms of geography, ecommerce channels, and product categories,” he adds, explaining that these factors mean the company would have “greater defensibility” against ongoing industry challenges.

Founded in early 2021 by Tanna along with Tobias Heusch, Kushal Patel, Adrian Johnston, and Srinivasan Shridharan, the company acquires, operates, and boosts brands on platforms such as Amazon, Shopify, Shopee, Lazada, and Tokopedia.

Since its establishment, Una Brands has committed a total of US$158 million to scoop up labels in South Korea, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The company previously said that it has managed to expand Singapore brands such as ErgoTune and EverDesk+ beyond Southeast Asia after they were acquired.

While it was reported recently by DealStreetAsia that Una Brands lost US$3.2 million in its first year, Tanna says that the company has seen “significant” changes since its 2021 financial year.

He adds that with the new funding, Una Brands will have enough capital for operations and acquisitions in the next two years. The company expects to hit EBITDA profitability by the end of 2023, instead of its previous projection of the fourth quarter of 2022.