▪ With the unprecedented shift towards online shopping caused by the pandemic, consumers were pushed to shop online more frequently, helping online sellers become increasingly more relevant ▪ In recent years, Amazon has become one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the West, serving 1.2 billion people, across 18 countries and accounting for 50% of US e-commerce sales ▪ There are over 2 million sellers on Amazon alone, many of which started as third-party ‘private labels’, which gradually scaled and reached critical mass, representing today established and recognised online brands ▪ However, due to the nature of their business models as well as their average sizes – most of which are small and midsize business (SMBs) – some of these online sellers are not organised as a structured business, with established processes and dedicated functions. As a result, they sometimes lack certain technological, logistic and administrative capabilities which represent a catalyst for further expansion ▪ Capitalising on this optimisation and consolidation opportunity, multiple companies have been raising capital in recent months to pursue a buy-and-build strategy with Amazon or online brands in general