Olsam, a London-based Amazon aggregator startup, has been hit by a winding up petition from a consulting firm, according to court records accessed via Caseboard. Winding up petitions are typically used by creditors to force debtors into liquidation if they fail to pay a debt.
The case was filed at the end of last week by Knoza Consulting, which consults on e-commerce strategy. Olsam did not respond to multiple requests to comment via different avenues.
The startup was founded in 2020: part of a cohort of aggregators that popped that year, surfing the pandemic-fuelled e-commerce hype by buying up small online sellers and — as the name suggests — aggregating and scaling them up.
Olsam raised a $165m Series A round in 2021, a combination of debt and equity. The round was led by Christian Angermayer’s Apeiron Investment Group and Elevat3 Capital, which counts Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund as a strategic partner.
The aggregator slow down
Olsam wasn’t alone in bringing in the big bucks. Investors piled significant amounts into the broader sector: exemplified in September 2021, when $1bn was piled into aggregators in a single day.
Post-pandemic, the aggregators have had a harder time. The e-commerce spending levels seen during lockdowns plateaued and many of these companies made layoffs, including Heroes, a British company which had raised $300m and Berlin Brands Group, the oldest of the European players in the space, which had raised $940m.
In August, BlackRock placed aggregator SellerX into non-accrual status, meaning borrowers have defaulted on payments, and was working with the company to “facilitate a path to recovery”. SellerX was then listed for auction – though it didn’t go ahead as the company said it had reached a recapitalisation agreement with investors.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/olsam-aggregator-winding-up-petition-news/
