New e-commerce brand buyer Olsam raises $165 million in equity and debt funding

Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve got a new e-commerce brand acquiring player at the table. London-based Olsam has raised a respectable $165 million in a Series A round. The capital will be put to use immediately acquiring leading e-commerce businesses, namely those in the Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) space. Interestingly, a portion of this funding has also been earmarked to, “deepen its brand IP and patent protection across multiple geographies, including China.”

For certain, Olsam isn’t alone in the space. Berlin’s SellerX has been on a tear as of late, and in just 12 months of operation, banked approximately €225 million in funding. US unicorn Thrasio (€1.4 billion in funding) has brought in 16 year Amazon veteran Georg Hesse to plant a flag in Europe, and Razor Group (€362 million) and Heroes (€55 million) are still very much in the game.

With that being said, Apeiron Investment Group and Elevat3 Capital (equity investment), and North Wall Capital (debt financing) have seen something special in the ex-Amazon marketplace team. This deep operational expertise is Olsam’s USP, and combined, the team has over 20 years of FBA experience and managed thousands of international brands via the platform.

Further explaining how Olsam stands out amongst a competitive marketplace, co-founder Ollie Horbye explains, “Leveraging our own experience as sellers, we’re using this capital to continue to invest in our operating platform and advance our existing brands, by tracking millions of real-time data points on the marketplace.”

With FBA sellers generating over $300 billion in sales in 2020, a 50% year-over-year growth rate, it’s easy to see why investors are ready to pony up to the table, and the chips these investors are laying down are nothing short of eyewatering. In total, the FBA brand buying sector has attracted close to $7 billion in capital in the past 12 months alone.