The Amazon marketplace roll-up play is getting even bigger. Since the beginning of 2021, Aggregators have raised another 7 billion dollars. Dozens of acquisitions are happening every week in major Amazon markets including North America, Europe, Japan, and India. Although Amazon has a very limited ecommerce presence in China, aggregators are building up interest in Chinese sellers given over 60% of products sold on Amazon are sourced from China.
Investors have been expecting Chinese aggregators to join the game given nearly half of third-party sellers on Amazon are from China. It would be a strategic play for a local aggregator to consolidate Amazon business in China given the country is famous for its global supply chain network. Recently, Nebula Brands, the first Chinese aggregator joined the game with over 100 million dollars in the war chest. Started from supply chain financing and fintech, Nebula Brands is well prepared and financed to join the race.
Nebula Brands was established in Shenzhen, the world factory in 2019. It started as a fintech company and has financed over 3,000 cross-border ecommerce businesses so far under partnerships with leading financial institutions including Bank of China, Webank, and CICC. Nebula collects operational and financial data from customers and develops risk management models specifically targeting Amazon sellers. The data-driven investment process enables the company to analyze and evaluate a large batch of sellers in a short period. The Company maintains an active pipeline of over 100 targets and can screen and evaluate over 400 transactions every month. Despite being the first aggregator in China, Nebula has been able to launch fast thanks to its Chinese heritage. The team is working closely with business owners, financial institutions, technology companies, and big ecommerce companies to reshape the landscape of Chinese cross-border ecommerce.
Nebula Brands believes China is a promising land for cross-border ecommerce. Despite a recent wave of shop closure by Amazon, there is an abundant supply of talents. Nebula has the vision to build international brands by utilizing local talents and conduct operations through compliant and quality middle offices. Guided by a brand strategy team based in New York, Nebula is on track to become an international brand manager. In the Amazon Marketplace 2.0, an integrated supply chain network connecting Chinese factories and the global market would be necessary to support Nebula’s Multi-Channel and Multi-Brand strategy. SHEIN, a Chinese ecommerce brand valued at $15BN and leads online fashion in the US, leveraged the Chinese supply chain to gain sufficient competitive advantage over its peers. Nebula is planning to follow suit by investing in the integration of supply chain and factory.
Nebula is more than a Chinese aggregator. Besides growing operations in China, Nebula is also eyeing overseas targets. It just launched its New York team with a focus on brand strategy and product management. The local team will follow the US consumer market closely and elevate the business from Made in China to Brands from China.
Nebula is raising capital from international investors. Besides the 100 million equity investment, it has also received interest from credit investors and is exploring financing on a global level. The goal is to use global financing to build an international brand management company.
