Following the recent bankruptcy of Thrasio, the world of e-commerce aggregators sees another significant development with Berlin’s Razor Group acquiring U.S.-based Perch. The acquisition is accompanied by a funding round of just over $100 million, led by Presight Capital with participation from other undisclosed investors.
The combined entity now boasts an enterprise value of $1.7 billion, with approximately $400 million in debt spread over the next four years. This debt restructuring was part of the terms of the deal.
This move is part of a broader trend of consolidation in the e-commerce aggregation space. Perch had been actively seeking a buyer for some time before this acquisition, while Razor Group had previously acquired other aggregators like Stryze and Factory 14.
Notably, this acquisition comes shortly after Thrasio’s Chapter 11 filing, despite having raised $3 billion in funding. Perch and Razor, although sharing some investors with Thrasio, claim they were unaware of the impending bankruptcy.
The new entity will be owned predominantly by Razor’s backers, including investors like L Catterton, BlackRock, Upper90, and Global Founders Capital. The business model of e-commerce aggregation shows promise on paper, leveraging the scale of retailers on platforms like Amazon to drive efficiencies and product development.
Despite the challenges of merging operations and scaling efficiently, Razor remains focused on founder-led strategies and agility in customer-centric supply chains. Tushar Ahluwalia, the CEO, emphasizes the company’s technology-driven approach and plans to adopt a “C2M” model inspired by Asian e-commerce giants like Shein.
Razor sees this deal as a milestone in establishing itself as the market leader, aiming to reach $1 billion in revenues within the next few quarters while maintaining profitability.
