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Ecommerce aggregators

2020 was the year a new kind of business was born: Amazon seller acquisition companies. The business model of these ecommerce aggregators revolves around acquiring successful Amazon sellers and then scaling them up. In Europe, there are several companies focused on Amazon Marketplace seller acquisitions.

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FBA acquirers and ecommerce aggregators

Here on Ecommerce News Europe, we’ve written about several ecommerce acquisition companies, which are sometimes called FBA acquirers or ecommerce aggregators.

There are currently more than 70 confirmed acquirers of marketplace brands. In the last 3 years, over $10 billion of funding was raised. But thats just a start because on Amazon alone, there are 35,000 of Amazon FBA brands with more than $1 million in revenue. That huge fragmentation and the big number of attractive sellers presents the opportunity for aggregation.

This is gaining momentum fast. In November 2020 for example, both Heroes and Razor raised tens of millions of euros (respectively 55 million and 25 million euros) to acquire and scale Amazon brands. In 2021, the US-based company Thrasio expanded its budget to grow across Europe, Berlin Brands Group invested 250 million euros, and FBA acquirer Branded raised 124 million euros.

Is your company the next Amazon? With Lightspeed or Shopify, both optimized for cross-border ecommerce, you can conquer Europe with your own online shop.

How the business model of these acquirers works

How do these acquirers of Amazon third-party FBA brands, also known as FBA aggregators, work exactly? Well, it’s pretty simple. Most of these companies operate through buyouts. They buy the Amazon account and the intellectual property from a seller that has been proven to be successful on Amazon’s marketplaces. In some cases, the acquirer offers a revenue-share model, while in other cases the original seller completely exits the company.

Then the acquisition company takes on the acquired Amazon brand and make it its own by appending some changes. It puts each product through a compliance check, so it won’t get in trouble later. And most of the time, the products will be sold for lower prices than before. That’s possible, because these acquisition companies have the resources to buy in bulk and make better contracts with manufacturers. Some acquisition companies also changes the product’s appearance on Amazon, by shooting new product photos, rewriting the listing or even redesigning the packaging.

Are you considering selling your online store or marketplace account? Are you looking for advice on the valuation or on how to find the right buyer? www.businessforsale.eu can help you with the entire process.

How to get acquired by an aggregator

Not every Amazon seller will be attractive enough for Amazon seller acquisition companies or FBA acquirers. You might get interesting to them when you generate between 1 and 5 million euros in annual revenue. Because on the one hand this means you have proved your market value, but on the other hand it often also means you’re so big your original team of sellers can’t hold the company together. And that’s when a Amazon seller acquisition company wants to jump in.

Most acquisitions take place with the original seller getting 3 to 4.5 times its annual net profits for the takeover.

Most deals are for 3 to 4.5 times the annual profits.

If you want to get acquired, you can just do your thing and hope you will get noticed by the many Amazon seller acquisition companies that are currently active. Or you could just contact these companies and see if they are interested in acquiring your business. That seems to be the most common practice. Just pick one of the companies below and browse their website. Most of them actively promote contacting them by showing a “sell your brand” or “sell your business” button on the homepage.

Is your company the next Amazon? With Lightspeed or Shopify, both optimized for cross-border ecommerce, you can conquer Europe with your own online shop.

Let’s have a look at some of the most popular Amazon seller acquisition companies in Europe:

Amazon seller acquisition companies in Europe

Here’s a list of FBA acquirers, companies in Europe which business model evolves around acquiring successful Amazon sellers and FBA brands.

Alphagreen (United Kingdom)

Alphagreen Group is a global acquisition and incubation platform with a(n alternative) health & wellness focus. The business helps brands to scale via the group’s distribution channels and omni-channel network. Alphagreen uses data and its partner network to qualify existing products to forecast future growth and automate the management of assets once acquired. The group has raised £3.5 million pre-Seed capital and has secured a debt facility to help with acquisitions.

Amazing Brands Group (Germany)

Amazing Brands is a company from Cologne, Germany. It has multiple years of funding experience in tech and ecommerce. It’s possible to join the ‘Amazing Brands family’ even if you don’t want to sell your online shop yet. Amazing Brands strives for deals with incremental earn-out participation (a kind of additional bonus) up to 24 months. This means you get a one-time payment (exit) and an earn-out participation on the EBITDA or revenue of your store.

Berlin Brands Group (Germany)

Berlin Brands Group from – you’ve guessed it – Berlin calls itself a pioneer in the direct-to-consumer model. It was founded in 2005 and currently has 14 brands in its portfolio. The company has access to 1.5 billion active ecommerce shoppers through several sales channels in more than 20 countries across Europe, and in the US and China.

Branded (France)

Branded is a acquirer from France. It claims to be a top 0.01 percent FBA seller. Its portfolio consists of over 25 brands, who generate more than 150 million euros gross revenue. Branded will give a detailed valuation for your business within 48 hours. If you decide to sell, Branded will close a deal within 2 to 4 weeks.

Diverge Group (The United Kingdom)

Diverge, located in the United Kingdom, invests in UK-based consumer businesses. Diverse is looking for companies with revenues of 1 to 20 million pounds (23 million euros), strong brands with a defendable position in the market, and companies with exciting growth opportunities, both in the UK and internationally.

Dwarfs (The Netherlands)

Dwarfs is a scaleup from the Netherlands that entered this market in May 2021. It raised 7.5 million euros and with a total war chest of somewhere between 30 and 40 million euros it wants to acquire about twenty companies in one year’s time. It mainly focuses on vendors that sell products on Dutch ecommerce platform Bol.com, but it also looks at Amazon sellers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy and France.

E-Brands (Finland)

eBrands is a company from Finland that entered the Amazon seller acquisition market in March 2021. eBrands says it’s the only Amazon FBA brand aggregator based in the Nordics. eBrands acquires brands in both Europe and the US. Businesses that are interested in being acquired by eBrands can get a decision within 3 days. eBrands says it’s especially interested in ethical and sustainable sourcing.

Excite Foundry (The United Kingdom)

Excite Foundry is based in the United Kingdom and uses a data-driven tech-first approach to acquire and scale consumer brands. The FBA acquirer is founded by entrepreneurs who have generated over 40 million euros in revenue on Amazon. The company is backed by institutional investors and can close deals quickly. Their average deal closing time is 21 days.

Factory14 (Luxembourg)

Factory14 is an Amazon acquisition seller company from Luxembourg. In May 2021, the company announced it raised over 160 million euros to acquire and scale successful vendors. It’s headquartered in Luxembourg, but also has offices in Madrid, London, Shanghai and Taipei.

Flummox (Switzerland)

Flummox, located in Switzerland, focuses on Amazon FBA brands, but Shopify brands as well. It wants to acquire, scale, and exit promising online consumer businesses with proven customer traction and high growth potential. It wants to grow these acquired brands into flourishing direct-to-consumer businesses within 24 months.

The Fortia Group (Ireland)

The Fortia Group was founded in March 2020 and is located in Dublin. The company is not an aggregator itself, but helps Amazon merchants sell their ecommerce business to aggregators. In 2022, the Fortia Group closed 7 acquisition deals with the highest being valued over 16 million euros.

Heroes (The United Kingdom)

Heroes is a tech-driven ecommerce company from the United Kingdom that acquires, operates and scale Amazon brands. They focus on small and medium-sized brands with category-winning products. Heroes is especially interested in brands primarily sold through Amazon FBA with over 90 percent of its revenue coming from this channel.

Marketplace Powerbrands (Germany)

Marketplace Powerbrands is from Germany and is founded to acquire and scale Amazon brands. Marketplace Powerbrands is founded by entrepreneurs who founded an Amazon marketplace company with sales in the double-digit million range. It says it can get from first contact to exit in just 30 days.

Merx Brands (Germany)

Merx acquires, operates and scales successful Amazon FBA businesses. The German company wants brands with a steady history of strong customer reviews and that ranked consistently among the top products within their category. Most of the sales should be generated through Amazon FBA and in Europe. Also, brands should have generated at least 100,000 euros of profit in the last twelve months.

The Mothership (The United Kingdom)

The Mothership, located in the UK, buys Amazon FBA businesses and aims to do this in 30 to 45 days from the point of agreeing the major terms of the deal. The company was founded by 4 product and technology entrepreneurs in 2021.

Olsam Group (The United Kingdom)

Olsam is a UK-based acquirer of Amazon FBA businesses. One of the founders worked at Amazon HQ in London and managed hundreds of UK and EU sellers businesses. He also started, scaled and sold his own Amazon FBA brand.

One Retail Group (The United Kingdom)

One Retail Group is another UK-based acquirer, with a portfolio of home appliance, personal care and lifestyle consumer goods brands. The company has its HQ in London, but its operations span 10 countries. In its seven year’s existence, the company successfully developed six popular brands with a global reach.

Orange Brands (Germany)

Orange Brands is a Germany company that acquires and accelerates European FBA microbrands on Amazon’s marketplace. They want brands with customer-centric products, who own the intellectual property, they don’t want resellers or fads. Interested companies should have over 1 million euros in revenue in the last twelve months.

Razor (Germany)

Razor Group is a startup from Germany that acquires and scales Amazon brands. In November 2020, the company raised 25 million euros in a new round. The company says the deal can happen in six weeks: from the valuation of your Amazon FBA business to getting all the documents cleared and transfering the money.

Savitar (Spain)

Savitar is a Spanish acquirer and operator of European Amazon-first brands. According to the website, selling your brand to Savitar takes less than two months. It targets brands with products that stand out from the pack with reviews. Also, Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) needs to be the main sales channel. You also need to have sold between €500,000 and €20 million on Amazon over the last twelve months.

Scythia (The United Kingdom)

Scythia is a UK-based acquirer of Amazon FBA brands. Its co-CEOs held senior positions at Amazon UK. They offer businesses the opportunity to get bought now and get paid even more after Scythia has accelerated the brand.

SellerX (Germany)

SellerX is a Germany-based company that buys and builds Amazon brands. Transactions are usually completed within 30 to 45 days after signing a letter of intent. The Berlin-based startup is backed by several investors, including Cherry VC, Felix Capital, and TriplePoint Capital.

Yaba (Spain)

Yaba is a FBA acquirer from Spain and is short for ‘Your Amazing Brand Amplifier’. It buys, funds and gives support to the growth of Amazon FBA brands. It’s looking for products leaders in its categories with a strong sales history, reviews, ratings and ability to scale.

Is your company the next Amazon? With Lightspeed or Shopify, both optimized for cross-border ecommerce, you can conquer Europe with your own online shop.