Perch landed $775 million of investor funding that will make the 18-month-old startup one of the best-funded players chasing the booming business of rolling up small retailers that are crushing it on Amazon and other online marketplaces.
The funding for the Boston-based business is the largest ever Series A raised by a consumer packaged goods company, according to Crunchbase, and almost four-times larger than the record set by Chinese online used goods trading marketplace Zhuanzhuan in 2017. The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from Spark Capital, and brings the company’s total funding to date to over $900 million.
“We are building the next-generation consumer products company,” said Chris Bell, founder and CEO of Perch, echoing the objectives expressed by the market leader in Amazon rollups, Thrasio, in a Forbes profile last year. The newfound appeal has the former Bain & Company and Wayfair executive relishing in the sudden rush of interest from investors. “The reception I got was a little bit like a Nigerian prince scam,” he says of his early pitch meetings.
Source: Forbes