Turkey’s first e-commerce brands investment and consolidation company RubiBrands became the company that received the highest investment to date with 23 million dollars in the seed round in the Turkish e-commerce market. RubiBrands, which has purchased 7 brands so far, is Turkey-oriented supply; e-export; It differentiates itself from its global competitors with its channel strategies focused on Amazon and other hyper-growing global marketplaces.
In the investment tour attended by investors from the USA, UK and Turkey, JAM Fund (venture capital fund of Tinder founder Justin Mateen), Atempo Growth, D4 Ventures, Esas Ventures and Alarko Ventures, as well as angels from Softbank, Lazada and Merama. Investors also took part.
Not just focused on Amazon
Founded by Yetkin Güneş, İrtek Uraz, Berkay Tulay and Emre Ekmekçi, who have achieved significant success in the field of e-commerce and private equity investments, RubiBrands focuses on developing successful e-commerce brands by partnering and investing in hyper-growing marketplaces. RubiBrands invests in brands that are produced especially in Middle-East Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Turkey and that are successful in Amazon, transforming them into global brands.
There are about 100 companies in the world that implement this new business model. This business model is called “Amazon Brand Aggregator” (Amazon Aggregator or Roll-Up) because these companies are mostly focused on FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). Giving information about the business model RubiBrands CEO Yetkin Güneş, “At RubiBrands, we believe that being successful in Amazon is not enough, but growing in regional leading marketplaces and direct consumer channels is the main opportunity.
By setting up our team and operations accordingly, we have launched our operations in more than 15 channels so far, such as Amazon (USA, UK, Germany, UAE) and regional major marketplaces Allegro, Zalando, Noon, Jumia, Trendyol and Hepsiburada, and fast e-commerce players Getir. ” he said.
Turkey provides an important opportunity in supply and logistics
Noting the growth of Turkish brands in global markets, Yetkin Güneş said, “There is an intense effort to reduce the supply and logistics dependency on China in the world. In this environment, Turkey, which has strengthened its position as a producer and exporter day by day, has increased the quality perception of Turkish brands in global markets with the Turquality program.
Prioritizing e-export as a government policy and becoming a regional leader in the field of air cargo and logistics with its investment in Istanbul Airport enabled Turkey to become an export partner of Europe and America. Today, we can deliver door-to-door products to Europe and the Middle East in just 4 days and with a cost advantage.
In addition, being close to the manufacturers as RubiBrands allows us to innovate faster and control the quality of our products. Because of all these features, we foresee that we will grow faster and more profitably than our global competitors by making our investments in Turkey and Turkish brands.”
The amount of investment is a record for the Turkish e-commerce sector
İrtek Uraz, Member of the Board of RubiBrands Responsible for Investments On the other hand, he emphasized that they prefer to buy successful and profitable brands in the marketplaces with high turnover, and that they are also entrepreneur-friendly. İrtek Uraz stated that investment models are based on the fact that brand owners stay in the organization for a while and focus on product and market development, unlike their global competitors. Thus, brand founders can benefit from a higher valuation in the future.
The 23 million dollar investment we have received in RubiBrands is also the highest investment made in an enterprise in the e-commerce sector in the seed round. This is an indication of the trust of domestic and foreign investors both in our business model and in our market.
We aim to reach 25 brands, an annual shipment of 12 million units and a sales of 110 million dollars in the next twelve months, thereby becoming one of the largest e-exporters in Turkey and one of the leading e-commerce investment companies in the region.