Amazon brand startup Thrasio to invest $500 for India e-commerce expansion

The company and its peers buy out small merchants and plan to use their retail expertise to turn the acquisitions into global brands.

Thrasio Holdings Inc., an aggregator of private brands on Amazon.com Inc., is setting aside more than $500 million for an expansion in India to target one of the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce markets.

The Walpole, Massachusetts-based startup said it acquired consumer goods company Lifelong Online to commence the push, without disclosing the value. Lifelong’s product categories include kitchen, home, lifestyle and health care, Thrasio said in a statement Friday.

Thrasio, backed by Silver Lake, is one of a slew of startups looking to capitalize on Amazon’s e-commerce dominance by acquiring up-and-coming sellers on the company’s third-party marketplace. Thrasio and its peers buy out small merchants, sometimes mom-and-pop operations run out of garages, and plan to use their retail expertise to turn the acquisitions into global brands.

“In addition to acquiring and growing digital-first businesses, we plan to participate in the ‘make in India’ movement by transitioning the manufacturing for some of our products to the country,” Carlos Cashman, Thrasio’s chief executive officer, said in the statement.

Thrasio has acquired more than 200 brands and raised over $3.4 billion in capital and plans to continue expanding globally. The startup’s rivals include Mensa Brands, backed by Tiger Global and Accel, and SoftBank Group Corp.-backed GlobalBees Brands.