Forum Brands, an online platform for acquiring e-commerce brands, today announced that it had secured $100 million in debt financing from TriplePoint Capital.
Just two months ago, the startup had raised $27 million through an equity round. This financing was led by Norwest Venture Partners.
In the summer 2020, Ruben Amar, Brenton Howland and Alex Kopco created Forum Brands, a New York-based company, in New York, at the height of COVID-19.
Howland explained to me that we were buying A+ high-growth ecommerce businesses that sell primarily on Amazon. We also want to build a portfolio that is category leaders on and off Amazon. We were inspired by the fundamental changes in consumer goods and services that have occurred over the past decades, which we believe will continue to drive digital transformation.
Forum Brands has announced that it acquired several brands since June. Bonza is a seller of pet products and Simka Rose is a baby-focused brand, which specializes in eco-friendly products. Simka is a Forum brand that sells in the U.S.A and the EU. It is an example of Forum's global expansion, Amar stated.
Howland and Amar stress that the Forum team will continue to evaluate potential acquisitions with a focus on quality rather than quantity. They meet with 15-20 founders per week but they are selective about which companies they acquire.
Amar stated that we will continue to be a quality first buyer and not quantity driven. He also said that the company will still help companies build their brand, even if they do not meet Forums' quality thresholds or the founders are not ready to sell.
These funds will be used to acquire additional e-commerce businesses. Sajal Srivastava (CEO, co-founder, and CEO of TriplePoint Capital) will join Forums' board of directors as part of the debt financing.
He stated that Forum's long-term strategy, ability to leverage technology, deep collective ecommerce and M&A experiences and how Forum fosters relationships with sellers before and after they partner with them are all things we were impressed by.
Forum had approximately 20 employees at the time Forum raised its June salary. Forum now has 40 employees.
Forums technology uses advanced algorithms and more than 100 million data points to fill brand information into a central platform instantly scoring brands and generating accurate financial figures.
We reported on August 31 that, on the heels Heroes' $200 million raise to buy and scale third-party Amazon Marketplace sellers, another London startup announced significant funding. Olsam is a roll-up company that buys up B2B and consumer merchants that sell on Amazon through Amazons FBA fulfillment program. It closed $165 million in equity and debt. This will allow it to continue its M&A strategy and build its tech platform, and also to hire more people.
