E-commerce startup Rainforest raises US$20m in pre-Series A funds

RAINFOREST has raised US$20 million in an oversubscribed pre-Series A funding led by venture capital firm Monk's Hill Ventures, announced the Singapore-based e-commerce brand aggregator on Wednesday.

Other participating investors were January Capital, Crossbeam Venture Partners, Amasia, and Lo & Behold Group together with Rainforest's existing investors, Nordstar and Insignia.

Rainforest said it intends to use its fresh funds to "double down on (its) aggressive growth strategy" as the company looks to acquire more Asia-based e-commerce brands, helping them to scale up and expand beyond its markets across Europe and America.

Since its operational launch in January 2021, Rainforest has acquired six e-commerce brands mostly based in Asia and said its portfolio has seen over 50 per cent improvement in post-acquisition annual growth rates to date.

The company plans to grow its current portfolio of e-commerce brands by three times by end-2021.

"With this round of funding, we look forward to providing well-deserved exits for more brand-builders across Asia and continue to scale up the brands they created with a world-class team at Rainforest," said the company's chief executive and co-founder JJ Chai, who formerly led growth and strategy for Carousell and was Airbnb's South-east Asia managing director before that.

The most recent round of funding brings Rainforest's total capital raised to over US$50 million, which it intends to use for the acquisition of e-commerce brands from Asian brand owners.

Meanwhile, Rainforest has named two vice-president hires - Yev Ivanko and Christine Ng - for acquisitions and brands, respectively. Each brings with them more than 15 years of experience in international expansion and business development, noted the company. It also intends to expand its key leadership team with strategic senior hires adept in acquisitions, branding and marketing, product development, supply chain, operations, and strategy.

In May this year, Rainforest announced it had raised US$36 million in seed financing. This included US$6.55 million in equity financing and a US$30 million committed debt facility from US-based debt fund Accial Capital, which also served as the company's debt provider for the latest pre-Series A round.