Left to right: Jeffrey Chua (Millennium Enterprise), JJ Chai (Rainforest)
E-commerce brand aggregator Rainforest today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Millenium Enterprises including its flagship baby care brand NatureBond.
In an email statement to e27, Rainforest Co-Founder and CEO JJ Chai wrote: “It was a 100 per cent acquisition of NatureBond and its parent company Millenium Enterprises for a significant seven-figure amount. Rainforest will continue to double down its efforts in acquiring promising brands to assemble a compelling portfolio of products for the modern mum segment.”
Following the acquisition, Millenium Enterprises founder Jeffrey Chua will be an advisor at Rainforest and NatureBond’s existing team will join Rainforest.
Rainforest will also support the brand’s marketing, pricing, supply chain, sourcing, product development and cross-border expansion levels. Apart from NatureBond, it already has over 13 cross-border brands in the mother, kids, baby care, and home categories.
According to a statement, NatureBond was recently ranked by The Straits Times and Statista as one of the fastest-growing companies in Singapore. Founded in 2016, it currently holds 31 patents globally and distributes its products to over 10 million consumers in 22 countries. To date, the brand has received over 40,000 positive product reviews and testimonials.
“We are immensely excited to welcome Naturebond into Rainforest’s growing family of brands for the modern mum. In a short time, NatureBond has established a reputation for creating fresh, distinctive and insightful products in an industry that is sometimes conservative in its innovation. This aligns well with our portfolio strategy as we continue to assemble compelling international brands targeted at the modern mum. I believe this partnership will accelerate both Naturebond’s global growth and the growth of our current baby brands and I am very excited by the opportunity ahead of us,” Chai said.
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As an e-commerce aggregator, Rainforest works by acquiring consumer e-commerce brands, enabling them to provide entrepreneurs with a healthy exit and support brands in their growth journey.
Last year, the company secured a US$20 million Pre-Series A funding round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures. It plans to use the funding to acquire brands and has used it to buy out six e-commerce brands on Amazon marketplaces.
In the same email, Chai said that it intends to deploy over US$100 million this year towards further acquisitions to grow its portfolio. It also claimed that in the second half of 2021, the company’s brands grew three times faster than the US e-commerce market.
Brand aggregator is one of the most promising e-commerce branches in recent years, especially when seen from the funding round that companies in the verticals have raised.
In November 2021, Hypefast, an e-commerce brand aggregator in Indonesia, secured US$19.5 million in a Series A round of investment –also led by Monk’s Hill Ventures. It is set to compete with Singapore’s Una Brands and Rainforest.
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Image Credit: Rainforest
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