Singapore e-commerce aggregator gets $45m

Existing investors Monk’s Hill Ventures, Insignia Venture Partners, and January Capital also participated. It brings total funding since launch to USD 101m, including two rounds last year that featured the likes of Amasia, Crossbeam Venture Partners, Nordstar Partners, and The Lo & Behold Group, a local IT company.

Rainforest pursues the brand agglomeration model that is becoming increasingly popular in Asia, inspired by the success of US-based Thrasio, which also specialises in buying up Amazon sellers. Competitors in Southeast Asia include Una Brands, which closed a USD 40m seed round last year.

Rainforest focuses on e-commerce microbrands, facilitating exits for entrepreneurs and supporting expansion as part of a larger platform. It claims to be a leader in the mother-and-baby category. Annualised revenue in its first year of operations amounted to USD 30m and there are plans to reach profitability by the end of 2022.

The company currently has 13 brands in its stable, including Singapore-based cross-border baby care brand NatureBond, which was acquired earlier this year, and Baby Deedee, a digital-native baby sleepwear brand. It said it would use the latest funding to build a “house-of-brands for the modern mum.”

Rainforest estimates that more than 30% of the thousands of new sellers setting up shops on Amazon every day are cross-border players based in Asia Pacific. The company considers this market a buy-and-build ecosystem of challenger brands with USD 390bn in gross merchandise value.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Singapore
• Southern Capital
• Monk's Hill Ventures
• Insignia Venture Partners
• e-commerce
• TMT
• Amazon