E-commerce Giant Amazon in talks to back social commerce platform Trell
- ByStartupStory | January 27, 2022
Internal sources have revealed that the e-commerce giant Amazon has recently initiated talks to back the influencer led social commerce platform Trell. If the deal comes through, it would mark Amazon’s first investment in an Indian e-commerce firm.
As a part of the deal, Amazon may invest a sum of $50-80 million which would form part of a $150 million funding round which Trell would be raising in the coming days. Following that round of funding, the valuation of the startup will reach at about a billion dollars, thus marking its entry into the coveted unicorn club. It is speculated that the existing investors such as Mirae as well as fashion retailer H&M would also be a part of the funding drive.
“If video and influencer-led retail is the next generation of ecommerce, Amazon needs an entry. It is not just a financial investment, but a way to get an insider view on how this space works and its real potential,” a retail analyst said, who did not want to be named since deal talks are private. This would mark the biggest bet that Amazon is placing on any Indian startup till date.
The four college friends Pulkit Agarwal, Arun Lodhi, Prashant Sachan and Bimal Kartheek Rebba came together on a rainy day in Mumbai in 2017 to form the revolutionary ‘Bharat’s Pinterest’- Trell. It initially started as a community-based social network to discuss and exchange lifestyle trends, and was part of Sequoia India’s accelerator program Surge in late 2019. It later became an influencer-led platform which also built an ecommerce layer on top, entering a hot space with startups such as Bulbul, Simsim and Ekanek.
Follow Startup Story
Related Posts
