Venture capital cash has been flowing this year to companies that plan to buy up sellers on Amazon and help them grow. In particular, such deals have targeted companies in the Fulfillment by Amazon program, in which the eCommerce giant warehouses a company’s products and then takes care of packing, shipping and providing customer service.
The latest such deal has Berlin-based SellerX landing 100 million euros ($118 million) of financing, reported Tech.eu. The firm will use the funds to acquire Amazon sellers and then build up their businesses.
The deal follows in the footsteps of Berlin-based Razor Group, which raised $26.7 million in venture capital this month; FBA Heroes, which netted a $65 million seed round, also this month; and Thrasio, which announced it had raised $260 million in July.
According to Tech.eu, SellerX’s funding was a mix of equity and debt. The round was led by Cherry Ventures, Felix Capital and Silicon Valley-based TriplePoint Capital, with participation from Village Global. Top angel investors included Zalando Co-founder David Schneider and former Shutterfly CEO Chris North.
“The diverse seller landscape on Amazon provides a unique opportunity to acquire some category-winning, highly profitable products, empower them through technology, and build them into the next-generation consumer brands,” Filip Dames, a founding partner of Cherry Ventures, told Tech.eu.
The founders of SellerX are Malte Horeyseck and Philipp Triebel, who met at Boston’s Harvard Business School.
So far, Thrasio is the leader in taking on Amazon sellers. The company said it is profitable and boasts of unicorn status with a valuation of $1 billion.
“For us, the revolution starts with the market,” said Thrasio Co-founder and CEO Joshua Silberstein. “The market is fundamentally changing, and as the market changes, so do the sources of competitive advantage. Our job is to be among the first to understand where those sources of competitive advantage are in this new, evolving market, and then execute on it.”
