French startup Branded secures $150 million in funding to acquire and partner with top-performing Amazon sellers and brands

Branded, a Paris, France-based startup and a global platform that partners with and invests in online eCommerce consumer products and marketplace brands online, today announced it has raised $150 million in investment capital and acquired 20 best-selling marketplace brands.

The round was led by Target Global, with participation from other global funds including Declaration Partners, Tiger Global, Kreos Capital, Lurra Capital, Regah Ventures, Kima Ventures, and Vine Ventures. Prominent entrepreneurs including Mark Pincus (Founder of Zynga), Jon Oringer (Founder of Shutterstock), Maximilian Bittner (Co-Founder of Lazada), and a dozen other business leaders and former executives from Amazon, Walmart, Alibaba, and Lazada have also individually invested in Branded.

Founded late last year by Pierre Poignant, Michael Ronen, and Ben Kaminski, Branded acquires and partners with top-performing Amazon sellers and brands. The startup emerged from stealth and its goal is to acquire proven Amazon brands and grow them by 100x by applying expertise in marketing, supply chain, merchandising, and product development.

Branded collects a portfolio of best-selling and profitable brands in the home, leisure, and lifestyle category with over 700,000 reviews on Amazon’s marketplace and collectively generating $150 million in gross revenue. Its backer includes Target Global, Declaration Partners, Tiger Global, Kreos Capital, Lurra Capital, Regah Ventures, Kima Ventures, and Vine Ventures.

Since its founding in 2020, Branded has built a robust portfolio of high-potential brands with combined gross revenues of approximately $150 million, making the group a home for some of the largest FBA (‘Fulfilled by Amazon’) sellers on Amazon. Branded is building a consumer products platform, with a focus on investing in, and growing brands in the Home, Lifestyle & Leisure categories.

Branded co-founder and CEO Pierre Poignant previously co-founded Lazada, which he led as CEO shortly after its sale to Alibaba and built it into one of the largest and fastest-growing e-commerce platforms in Asia. Branded co-founder and President Michael Ronen brings deep expertise in growth investing from his experience as a founding managing partner of SoftBank’s Vision Fund in Silicon Valley, as well as a wealth of capital-raising and M&A execution experience from his 19 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner and COO of the global technology group.

“We are excited to leverage our e-commerce and business-building experience to create this next-generation multi-brand platform,” said Mr. Poignant. “Our team will provide unmatched operations, marketing, business development and supply chain expertise, serving as the partner of choice for entrepreneurs worldwide to scale their consumer brands and delight consumers on Amazon and beyond. Our global footprint, our team’s experience in scale-up growth, our ready access to capital, as well as the proprietary analytical tools and business intelligence capabilities we are building, uniquely position us to exponentially grow the best brands out there.”

“Thanks to Amazon’s incredible investment in global logistics and technology, there are millions of third-party sellers worldwide on the Amazon marketplace,” said Mr. Ronen. “We are facing a generational opportunity to build Branded into a digital-first consumer product goods (CPG) e-commerce platform, distilling the best among the $300 billion in revenue generated by businesses already thriving on Amazon’s marketplace. We will look to partner with and enable the most successful founders of high-potential brands to scale their operations globally.”

Ben Kaminski, Partner at Target Global, co-founder and Chairman of Branded, added: “Covid-19 has been a massive accelerator of consumers’ continuing shift to online shopping. We see fundamental changes in consumer behavior and purchase decision-making opening an opportunity to build a new type of consumer products leader with a digital-first mindset. Target Global has been a proud co-founder and investor in Branded. We are excited to jointly realize this unique opportunity while becoming a home for some of the most talented sellers and entrepreneurs seeking to take their brands to the next level. I am excited to work with Pierre and Michael to realize Branded’s full potential.”