If 2023 was bad for the Amazon aggregator’s fundraising, this year is set to be even worse.
Only two equity funding rounds had been completed by June 27, compared with five during the same period last year and 12 for all of 2023.
“The decline in funding reflects the overall venture environment, where fundraising has slowed across industries, particularly in Amazon aggregators, where the largest and most well-known player, Thrasio, was preparing to file for bankruptcy in the second half of 2023 as an overall slowdown in e-commerce sales growth has also slowed funding into the space,” Laura Kennedy, principal analyst at CB Insights, said in a written statement to Practical E-Commerce. “These aggregator companies are still around and still making acquisitions, but the market as a whole has plateaued.”
Trasio Announced The company announced last week that it had emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and promoted Chief Operating Officer Stephanie Fox to CEO and director effective immediately. CEO Greg Greeley had been expected to step down after the restructuring.
“A revitalized Thrasio will remain focused on profitability as a consumer goods company and prioritize its best-performing brands,” Thrasio said in a press release.
Based in Walpole, Massachusetts, Trasio submitted The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February in a New Jersey court, asking the court to oversee a restructuring agreement with creditors that would reduce its debt by about $495 million and allow it to defer interest payments for one year after bankruptcy.
“The restructuring leaves Trasio financially stronger with a cleaner balance sheet, reduced debt and an injection of $90 million in new capital,” the company said.
Trasio will focus on core brands with loyal customer bases and potential for product and channel expansion, the company said, including The Hate Stains Co. stain remover, which grew more than 100% last year, and Angry Orange pet odor repellent, whose sales have grown 21-fold since it was acquired in 2018.
“We are emerging from Chapter 11 with a healthy balance sheet, new capital and a renewed focus on our core business of building our brand,” Fox said. “I’ve been with Trasio since day one and I’m just as excited about the opportunity ahead as I was in 2018.”
However, the situation of e-commerce is Changed China’s Temu and Shein continue to gain market share with cheaper products.
Who will be Amazon’s brand acquirer in 2021? Spent More than $6 billion in acquisitions have been made as e-commerce demand surges amid the pandemic stay-at-home frenzy. So far this year, aggregators have made Spent $100 million.
“I have to imagine that the growth of Temu and Shain hasn’t helped the aggregator market, as the notion of a cheap online ‘brand’ becomes even less relevant in an environment focused on the lowest possible prices (and now with Amazon launching a marketplace for products shipped directly from China),” said CB Insights’ Kennedy.
