Benitago Group, a startup wanting to construct an enormous portfolio of Amazon brands, is asserting that it has raised $55 million in new funding — $three million in fairness and $52 million throughout a number of credit score strains for acquisitions.
“We want to take these brands and growth them and run them a lot more efficiently,” mentioned co-founder Santiago Nestares.
Other startups have additionally raised large rounds to roll up Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) companies, however Nestares informed me that Benitago is totally different as a result of it’s not simply targeted on “financial arbitrage.” Instead, it has created a detailed, repeatable blueprint to proceed rising these enterprise.
Nestares and his co-founder Benedict Dohmen (they every gave the corporate a couple of syllables for its title) began Benitago whereas college students at Dartmouth, with the again ache model Supportiback. The firm has subsequently expanded into classes like magnificence, maternity and diet, however Nestares mentioned they funded that progress with income, with out elevating a lot outdoors capital prior to now.
As a end result, workforce members might not have been consultants in, say, orthopedics, however they’ve succeeded as a result of they’re “hyper-focused” on how brands can develop on Amazon, turning into what Nestares described as “Amazon natives.”
The course of often begins with a complete take a look at the aggressive panorama and what prospects are saying of their evaluations. Then, Nestares mentioned, “We design everything around Amazon, from the feature selection to the way we create the colors in the packaging [to] the way the product fits in an Amazon box.”
The firm mentioned that when it acquires brands, the method solely takes a couple of weeks, and that the earlier house owners retain a monetary stake within the model’s continued progress.
“This isn’t a passive financial play, it’s an an impact growth play,” Nestares added.
Amazon is unlikely to lose its e-commerce dominance anytime quickly, however Nestares acknowledged that constructing Benitago’s enterprise on a single platform is its “biggest risk.” At the identical time, he urged that the startup may be very totally different from, say, firms who is likely to be threatened any time Google adjustments its search algorithm.
“I think Amazon is different, because Amazon has the same goal as you: To sell to the customer as much as they can,” he mentioned.
Benitago at the moment operates 5 brands with greater than 100 complete merchandise. With the brand new funding, that quantity may improve dramatically — Nestares mentioned there are 12 new brands in growth, whereas he’s additionally hoping to purchase one other 25 or extra brands by the top of the yr.
The fairness funding was led by CoVenture, which additionally supplied a $50 million credit score line.
