Una Brands, the Asia-Pacific focused e-commerce aggregator, seeks to invest over RM 100 million in the next year to acquire local Malaysian e-commerce brands, and grow them into regional and global household names.
Malaysia’s e-commerce income jumped 17.1% in the third quarter of this pandemic year. Despite this growth, local MSMEs cite difficulty in managing cross-border supply chains, international logistics, and high operating costs as the most critical challenges. With Malaysia’s population of digital consumers surpassing that of Southeast Asia’s average, it is even more critical for local brands to overcome these hurdles to maximise the economic potential of the sector.
Under Una Brands, brands gain dedicated in-house access to critical areas of supply chain management and performance marketing, as well as channel and geographic expansion. With its vast sourcing network and global logistics partnerships, coupled with optimised inventory management and streamlined operations, Una Brands aims to solve the operational challenges faced by local brands, allowing them to focus on new product development, branding, and expansion.
Unique in the aggregator space, Una Brands focuses on multiple platforms such as Amazon, Shopify, Shopee, and Tokopedia, and has an on-the-ground presence in 7 APAC markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, China, and Australia. This enables brands to professionalise operations and plug into an engine that can turbocharge their growth on the
“Malaysia is an exciting market with enormous potential and a priority for Una Brands. We are looking to deploy over RM 100 million to acquire strong local brands here over the next year, and also establish Malaysia as a regional hub for key operational and growth functions given the exceptional talent pool,” says Kiren Tanna, CEO and Founder of Una Brands.
Tanna said the Una offer is essential to remove the stress of running the brand, for a fair upfront lump sum and a cut of the profits going forward, as Una Brands scales the brand to its full potential globally. A deal can be completed within six weeks, with flexible deal structures and a smooth integration process.
“We’ve been on the ground speaking to as many local brand owners as possible to understand their goals and challenges and share how we might be able to help. Malaysia has many entrepreneurs who have developed great products with strong brands that we Malaysians love. The opportunity to sell their brand is a new model here, so there is a bit of education on what we offer and why it might make sense – we’re looking forward to minting a few new millionaires in the process,” says Carey Su, Country Head of Una Brands.
Una Brands targets profitable, independent brands with annual revenues of at least RM 1 million and up to RM 100 million. It focuses on everyday consumer products in the home & living, beauty & personal care, pets, babies, and sports & outdoor space, but is open to a wide range of categories.
Since launching earlier this year, Una Brands has raised RM 230 million (USD 55 million) from global investors and acquired over 20 brands across APAC, with the earliest brands already seeing a 50% increase in profits post-acquisition.
