With $1 Bn Fundraise, US-Based Thrasio Eyes Indian Market

Earlier this month, it was speculated that US-based Thrasio may enter the Indian market with its first local acquisition. The decacorn that pioneered the concept of acquiring small brands and collaborating with them to scale, had earmarked $500 Mn for acquisitions in India. Thrasio is starting with an investment in Delhi NCR-based home appliances startup Lifelong Online.

Now, as Thrasio is successfully building a scale of brands, replacing Amazon’s sellers with its own, it has raised $1 Bn at a valuation of $10 Bn. Led by private equity firm Silver Lake, the round saw participation from Advent International, Oaktree Capital Management, Upper90, PEAK6 and Corner Capital.

Founded in 2018 by Carlos Cashman and Joshua Silberstein, Thrasio is further backed by JPMorgan Chase Bank, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, among others.

Its business model constitutes acquiring third-party private label Amazon FBA businesses and direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecommerce brands. After the acquisition of the small (and majorly everyday needs-based) businesses, Thrasio optimises and operates the acquired brands. It expands the brands’ reach through marketing, product development, supply chain management, and wholesale expansion.

From finances to operations, Thrasio claims to have an average 156% annualised EBITDA growth from its portfolio of 150+ brands. It further manages the scale of 22K+ category products.

While Thrasio is currently ecommerce, especially Amazon’s FBA business-oriented, it is also increasingly looking at opportunities in other marketplaces — other sales channels and D2C plays.

According to reports, the reason why Thrasio has raised such a big round is to better target the global opportunity. The startup is currently operational in the US, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Japan and China. It plans to expand that, as well as find more companies to gobble up and expand its supply chain.

A primary confirmation comes through a Bloomberg report where Cashman said that Thrasio plans to expand to India and explore other online retail platforms.

The Ecommerce Opportunity For Thrasio In India

According to Inc42 Plus estimates, India’s ecommerce industry is pegged to reach $200 Bn by 2026. Among the largest ecommerce platforms in India, Amazon India claims to have 850K+ vendors while Flipkart has 350K+ sellers, a plausible market for companies such as Thrasio.

The D2C market, on the other hand, according to an Inc42 Plus report, has over 800 D2C brands and is expected to exceed a $100 Bn market valuation by 2026.

In the few months, India has seen the rise of several Thrasio styled ventures that are banking on the rising D2C wave. Some of these include Supam Maheshwari’s FirstCry’s Global Bees, Ananth Narayanan’s Mensa Brands, Rishi Vasudev’s GOAT Brand Labs, Utsav Agarwal & Pulkir Chhabra’s Evenflow, Bhavana Suresh’s 10Club, Presight Capital-backed Upscalio, and FJ Labs-backed Powerhouse91.

Testament to the rising Thrasio-style acquisitions, in the last month, Ankit Nagori’s Curefoods acquired seven foodtech brands, IPO-ready Nykaa announced its plans to build House of Brands, Upscalio invested in furniture brand Green Soul, Mensa Brands acquired 10 D2C startups, 10club acquired two brands — sports and fitness equipment brand Skudgear, and baby products brand My Newborn.