The Order : Weekly Aggregator Roundup - Dragonfly & The Mothership

Chart of the Week

As Marketplace Pulse research outlines the share of domestic sellers on the US Amazon Marketplace rebounds to 55%.

Percentage of Top Amazon Sellers based in the US [Marketplace Pulse]

New funding this week: $522M

Funding Craze 💰

• US: Dragonfly added announced $500M financing round earlier this month led by L Catterton which includes a credit facility from Victoria Park Capital [PR Newswire]

• UK: The Mothership announced a $22M mixed equity & debt round to grow multi-channel brands [Business Insider - incl excerpts from the fundraising deck]

Movers & Shakers 🤝

• US: Amazon Aggregator Society Brands Acquires Brand Management Agency OmniiX to Accelerate Rapid Growth of Acquired Companies [PR Newswire]

• India: IDAM House of Brands on the path to becoming a large brand conglomerate [YourStory]

• India: Zashed Fashionverse Plans to Go on Twisted Thrasio Model [Indian Retailer]

• EU: Factory14 -- Trading brand assets is on whether it's from a position of strength or cleaning up the portfolio, overall expected market behavior - this article focuses on the downside: "The Amazon Rollup Model Starts to Show Strain" [The Information]

• EU: Heroes & villains - A tale of not-so solid capital (that never made it into the round): "VC ‘threatened media war against startup after faking investment deal’" [Sifted]

Strategy 📈

• "Inflation is driving consumers to Amazon, as marketplaces are favoured for price and convenience" [Charged Retail]

• "Amazon Is Not Sanctioning Russian Sellers" [Marketplace Pulse]

• Forum Brands co-founder says the aggregator space still in ‘early innings’ [Modern Retail]

• Podcast series that looks into Amazon's growth: "Amazon’s Store Has Practically Everything, Including Many Problems" [Bloomberg]

• 1 & 2-day shopping coming to Wix: Wix adds Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment for e-commerce merchants [FreightWaves]

• Supply chain woes: "The direct-to-consumer craze is slamming into reality" [CNBC]

• Pinduoduo & Alibaba insights: "New data underscores a slowing eCommerce market" [Techcrunch]

• As Target Tops $100 Billion In Revenue, Meet The CIO Who Made That Possible Digitally [Forbes]

• Inside India’s $400 Bn Ecommerce Economy [Inc42]

Events 🎤

• Webinar "Demystifying LoIs" 12pm EST on 3/31 by The Fortia Group

• 2nd eCommerce Aggregator Pitch Day by the German Online Retail Association on April 26 2022 in Cologne [BVOH]

Let's make this week count,

Christian