Benitago Group, a startup seeking to construct a giant portfolio of Amazon manufacturers, is saying that it has raised $55 million in new funding — $3 million in fairness and $52 million throughout a number of credit score strains for acquisitions.
“We need to take these manufacturers and progress them and run them much more effectively,” mentioned co-founder Santiago Nestares.
Different startups have additionally raised huge rounds to roll up Amazon FBA (Achievement by Amazon) companies, however Nestares instructed me that Benitago is totally different as a result of it’s not simply targeted on “monetary arbitrage.” As a substitute, it has created an in depth, 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 corporate 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.
Consequently, group members might not have been specialists in, say, orthopedics, however they’ve succeeded as a result of they’re “hyper-focused” on how manufacturers can develop on Amazon, turning into what Nestares described as “Amazon natives.”
The method normally begins with a complete have a look at the aggressive panorama and what prospects are saying of their critiques. Then, Nestares mentioned, “We design all the things round Amazon, from the function choice to the way in which we create the colours within the packaging [to] the way in which the product suits in an Amazon field.”
The corporate mentioned that when it acquires manufacturers, the method solely takes a couple of weeks, and that the earlier homeowners retain a monetary stake within the model’s continued progress.
“This isn’t a passive monetary play, it’s an an influence progress 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 “greatest danger.” On the similar time, he instructed that the startup may be very totally different from, say, corporations who could be threatened any time Google modifications its search algorithm.
“I believe Amazon is totally different, as a result of Amazon has the identical purpose as you: To promote to the shopper as a lot as they’ll,” he mentioned.
Benitago at the moment operates 5 manufacturers with greater than 100 whole merchandise. With the brand new funding, that quantity might enhance dramatically — Nestares mentioned there are 12 new manufacturers in improvement, whereas he’s additionally hoping to accumulate one other 25 or extra manufacturers by the tip of the 12 months.
The fairness funding was led by CoVenture, which additionally offered a $50 million credit score line.
