Una Brands secures $20m Series A to bolster e-commerce acquisition pipeline

E-commerce acquirer Una Brands has completed a $20 million Series A, giving it more capital to buy brands based in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region, and further strengthen its technology team to operate its brands at scale.

Founded this year by Kiren Tanna, Adrian Johnston, Kushal Patel, Tobias Heusch and Srinivasan Shridharan, Una Brands operates a model whereby it acquires online retail brands in order to grow them into global companies.

In just a short period of time Una Brands has witnessed rapid growth, having secured $50 million in its seed round and now a further $20 million in the Series A co-led by White Star Capital and Alpha JWC.

The two investment companies were joined by current investors and Alvin Teo, the co-founder of regional logistics company Ninja Van.

Una Brands buys retailers primarily selling across multiple online channels in the APAC market with revenues of between US$1 million and US$50 million.

Since launch, it has acquired more than 15 brands, and now has a 90-person team across seven offices in Australia, Singapore, India, China, Indonesia and Malaysia.

“We started with a mission to acquire and grow great brands into enduring, well-loved and global household names and we have made large strides towards this goal,” Una Brands' Sydney-based co-founder and head of the Australia office Adrian Johnston said.

“With this raise, we will continue to invest in acquiring great brands, developing our multi-channel capabilities, expansion into our newly launched markets and supporting our brands’ growth.”

White Star Capital general partner Nicholas Stocks said Una Brands’ approach to e-commerce was setting it up for dominance in the online retail space.

“There is a $20B opportunity for e-commerce brand acquirers in APAC, a region that is unique in its fragmentation and requires strong local expertise,” Stocks said.

“Una Brands, through its multi-channel approach, has built proprietary tech and processes to identify, acquire, grow and operate businesses seamlessly across all channels.

“We believe Una Brands has the right approach and team to win in this market.”