A London startup, which is also seeking to scale third-party Amazon Marketplace sellers after Heroes announced a $200 million raise earlier in the day, has announced significant funding. Olsam is a roll-up company that buys up B2B and consumer merchants that sell on Amazon through Amazon's FBA fulfillment program. It has raised $165 million. This combination of equity, debt, and equity will be used to fund its M&A strategy and continue building its tech platform, and to hire more people.
Apeiron Investment Group, an investment company founded by Christian Angermayer, led the Series A equity round. Elevat3 Capital (another Angermayer business that has a strategic partnership between Founders Fund & Peter Thiel) also participated. North Wall Capital was responsible for the debt portion. We asked Olsam to disclose the total amount raised. He did not reveal the difference between equity and debt. The valuation is not being disclosed.
Olsam is an Amazon rollup startup from London, which happens to be announcing today's fundraise. Olsam was also founded by brothers, just like Heroes.
Sam Horbye spent many years at Amazon. He also managed the B2B marketplace, which is the company's consumer marketplace. Ollie Horbye was a co-founder and had extensive experience in financial services and strategic consulting.
They have both built and sold other marketplace businesses and believe this gives Olsam, a portmanteau of Ollie and Sam, an advantage when it comes building relationships and quality products.
Olsam also takes a different approach to targeting companies. It focuses not only on consumers but also merchants who sell to businesses. It is one of Amazon's fastest growing segments, but it is also one that is often overlooked by consumers. Ollie says it is often overlooked.
Sam said that the B2B market is extremely exciting. There are more merchants selling office supplies and other random products to the B2B market.
There are many estimates of how many merchants Amazons Marketplace sells globally. These range from 6 million to almost 10 million. These merchants collectively generated $300 million in gross merchandise value (gross merchandise sales), which is growing at 50% per year.
Consolidating sellers to create economies of scale in supply chains, marketing tools, analytics and other areas is also a big business. Olsam estimates that $7 billion has been spent on these acquisitions in total, with more to come: Olsam estimates that there are approximately 3,000 UK businesses making more than $1,000,000 in Amazons sales.
To be clear, Heroes is not the only roll-up startup interested in this opportunity. Suma Brands [$150m], Elevate Brands[$250m], Perch[$775m], factory14[$200m], Thrasio] [currently the largest of all of them in terms of reach and money raised and ambitions], Heyday and Branded, SellerX and Berlin Brands Group [X2], Benitago and Latin Americas Valoreo and Rainforest, and Una Brands from Asia.
Olsam's senior team is what makes it unique, stated Angermayer in an announcement. Their knowledge of the space is extraordinary, having all been successful in selling their brands in the market. They also have experience working for Amazon's marketplace team.
