Acquco, a platform focused on acquiring third-party sellers on Amazon, announced that it has closed a $160 million Series A round to fund its aggressive growth plans fueled by its unique operational edge and unparalleled understanding of Amazon. The round’s participants include CoVenture, Singh Capital Partners, Crossbeam, and other notable investors such as Aman Bhutani (GoDaddy, CEO). The proceeds will be used to scale its portfolio to over $500 million of revenue by 2022 and continue building its technology platform.
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The Untapped Potential
Consumer purchasing behavior has meaningfully shifted to online channels, with ecommerce penetration increasing more in 2020 than it has over the prior five years. Amazon has been the largest beneficiary of this trend, and is estimated to capture 40% of all ecommerce activity in the U.S. While the majority of Amazon sellers have benefited from these tailwinds, millions of successful sellers have also naturally reached a “growth wall” and do not possess the capital or broader expertise to scale their business further. This is where Acquco steps in.
Leveraging its proprietary lead generation systems, Acquco quickly identifies the best businesses to acquire and leverages flexible founder-friendly deal structures which allow sellers to immediately monetize while also participating in the future growth of their brand. Post-acquisition, the Company employs unique operational playbooks and technology which automates processes to accelerate the top-line growth of brands across Amazon and other retail channels. On average, Acquco achieves over 100% revenue growth after migrating the brand onto its platform.
“My unique experience at Amazon originating and leading core initiatives with over $1 billion in annual revenue impact provided me deep insights into the primary pain points and challenges that Amazon sellers face everyday,” said Raunak Nirmal (Acquco, Founder and CEO). “Combining these perspectives with over 7 years of direct experience operating and innovating within the Amazon ecosystem has allowed me to generate a truly differentiated edge and understanding of the Amazon universe. Leveraging this edge, Acquco has been able to rapidly scale in less than a year and raise a substantial amount of capital – allowing us to further accelerate the growth of our competitive moat.”
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Acquco’s Edge
Acquco was built leveraging the unparalleled Amazon and M&A expertise of the founding and executive team. Founders Raunak Nirmal and Wiley Zhang have built multi-million dollar Amazon businesses, consulted for the largest Amazon sellers in the world, and have also built tools that empower thousands of Amazon sellers to maximize their profits. Additionally, Acquco’s Chief Strategy Officer Jerel Ho, who most recently led Corporate Development and Strategy at WeWork & was previously a career investment banker, has closed over $40B in M&A deals.
The Company leverages technology to automate management and generate efficiencies for all operational functions, from Brand Management to Supply Chain. Acquco’s proprietary algorithms analyze thousands of criteria sets and millions of data inputs to inform key operating decisions across the portfolio. Additionally, Acqcuo has built technology servicing other core functions of the Company, including Sales and Acquisitions to source untapped deal flow, automate due diligence, and rapidly onboard brands.
Early Success
Leveraging its optimized playbooks and technology, Acquco closes deals in less than 30 days – faster than competitors. It has also enabled the Company – in less than a year — to efficiently scale, achieving more than $100 million in revenue to date while deploying less than $2 million of equity capital.
“Acquco’s unique position versus its competitors, driven by the deep Amazon experience and strong vision of its founders, has created an unparalleled investment opportunity in a massive, growing market,” said Ali Hamed (Founder, CoVenture). “We are incredibly excited to partner and work alongside their team to take the next step & drive growth at scale.”
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