Led · Debt Financing · Aug 2021

Heroes buys and consolidates third-party Amazon merchants into a single operating platform to drive scale across supply chain, marketing and analytics. The company emphasizes human-led acquisition relationships while building tech to tie systems together, saying tech supports but does not replace acquisitions. Its portfolio spans babies, pets, sports, personal health and home & garden, with examples including PremiumCare dog chews, the Onco baby car mirror, Davaon gardening tools and Theraflow wooden foot massagers. Heroes launched in November 2020 and was founded by three brothers: Riccardo, Alessio and Giancarlo Bruni. The startup says sales at brands acquired since launch have grown five-fold. It currently has about 70 employees and plans to double headcount with a focus on operational experts to run acquired businesses. Heroes buys well-performing Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) businesses across sectors such as pets, homeware, garden and sports and scales them using an in-house operations team. The company was founded by twin brothers Riccardo and Alessio Bruni in June and is headquartered in London. Heroes offers exits to entrepreneurs by acquiring their Amazon FBA brands and then optimising and expanding those brands internationally. The business has already closed its first couple of acquisitions and says it has achieved profitability. Founders have prior ecommerce and finance experience, including a prior VC-backed D2C healthtech brand and roles at EQT Ventures, Merrill Lynch, Perella Weinberg Partners and Lazada. The company plans to use new capital to finance further acquisitions, grow the acquired brands and build out its team.

Led · Equity · Jul 2021

Unybrands operates a platform that acquires e-commerce brands and provides capital and operational resources to scale their businesses on and off Amazon. Founded in 2020 and based in Miami, the company targets brands across eight categories including baby, garden and outdoor, sports and fitness, and personal care. Since a $25 million seed round in February, Unybrands said it has closed multiple acquisitions in the U.S. and Europe and is on track to beat its 2021 projection of completing 20 deals. The company has more than 25 full-time employees across the U.S., Europe and Asia and plans to more than double headcount by the end of the year. Unybrands is building out a technology platform to find targets, automate supply chain management and optimize e-commerce growth investments. The newly announced $300 million in growth capital from Crayhill Capital Management will enable faster acquisitions of Fulfillment By Amazon brands, further technology development and team expansion. unybrands operates an integrated platform that acquires, integrates, manages and grows e-commerce assets, turning them into long-term consumer brands. The company specializes in eight categories: personal care, pet care, household products, juvenile & baby, sports & fitness, garden & outdoor, lifestyle & arts and supplements. After acquiring businesses, unybrands consolidates logistics and supply chains, optimizes performance marketing and economics, and expands product lines and platforms. It pursues expansion into new domestic and international markets and builds direct-to-consumer platforms to enhance customer experiences. unybrands launched with $25M in equity seed funding to scale its operations. The company was founded in 2020 by Ulrich Kratz, Eugen Miropolski and Christian Harnischfeger.

Led · Debt Financing · Oct 2020

Marketlend offers supply chain finance, debtor finance and line-of-credit products to SMEs, securitising each trade credit facility from inception and providing individualised trade credit risk protection. The company was founded in 2014 by Leo Tyndall to address a $1.5 trillion global trade finance gap and has grown to 760 investors and 873 trade credit facilities valued at AUD $333 million. Earlier this year Marketlend was valued at AUD $175 million and raised AUD $8.5 million in equity to boost brand awareness and marketing. It recently closed a $100 million financing facility with Crayhill Capital Management LP to assist liquidity and cash-flow management for global companies and to support its international insured trade receivables lending across Asia, the Middle East and Oceania. Marketlend is also rolling out UnLock, a B2B Buy Now Pay Later payment gateway offering extended supplier terms of up to 30, 60 or 90 days, and has indicated potential for an ASX listing after achieving domestic growth. Marketlend is an online marketplace that facilitates secured lending by securitizing trade credit receivables from mid and large Australian businesses. Founded in 2014 by Leo Tyndall and based in Sydney, the platform offers investors access to supply-chain or debtor lending facilities backed by short-term receivables. A global insurance company protects Marketlend against borrower and debtor insolvency, providing credit enhancement and uninterrupted principal repayment on the majority of lending facilities. Marketlend securitizes loans at inception and supplements investments with individualized loan risk protection, including insurance and first-loss protection. The company aims to scale its marketplace lending operation to attract both institutional and retail investors as the Australian P2P market develops. Financially, Marketlend completed its first external equity financing, closing a $1 million investment round led by Jon Barlow, and secured commitments from new investors to fund debt investments on the platform.