Philippine E-Commerce Startup Armada Brands Raises $1.3 Million in Pre-Seed Round

E-commerce startup Armada Brands has raised $1.3 million (about P66.77 million) in a pre-seed round, the company announced Monday (April 4). The round was co-led by venture capital firms M Venture Partners and Foxmont Capital Partners. Also participating were Kaya Founders—which was one of the startup’s earliest backers—top VCs such as Antler and Sketchnote, angel investors and advisors including Constantin Robertz and Jannis Dargel of Locad, as well as other senior executives from marketplaces and enablers across Southeast Asia. 

Armada Brands is an e-commerce aggregator that scopes out and invests in five-star direct-to-consumer brands “with high potential.” The company offers these e-commerce entrepreneurs growth capital and things like operational support through a team of experts, infrastructure and technology, everything “from commercial management such as branding, digital marketing, and channel management, to operations such as warehousing, fulfillment, and customer service.” Armada Brands essentially partners with the e-commerce company to help build and scale it up not just in the Philippines but throughout Southeast Asia, aiming “to grow sales and profits by 10x within one to two years.” 

Unlike other e-commerce aggregators, Armada says the e-commerce entrepreneurs retain a sizable stake in the company “so that their heads—and pockets—remain in the game.”

“Armada Brands is entrepreneur-focused: helping partner entrepreneurs turn their vision of the brand into reality,” the company says in a news release. 

According to the Armada Brands’ website, the partnership is a 45-day process, entailing initial talks between the startup and the e-commerce company, working out the valuation and parameters of the deal, and due diligence. Although the company has yet to disclose the e-commerce companies it has partnered with, it says it recently closed its first investment “into a fast-growing and well-loved fashion brand started and run by a Filipina mum.” According to the release, the founder of the e-commerce company has “a strong entrepreneurial drive alongside a treasure trove of new and hot product ideas.” 

“Armada will support her in pushing the brand in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) as well as marketplace channels, in expanding the product assortment, and in bringing the brand into the US market,” the company says. 

The startup says it intends to use the fresh capital to make additional investments and build up a team of top e-commerce talent that will then support these brands. 

Armada Brands is led by CEO Andreas Hufnagl, who is a former McKinsey consultant and private equity investment professional, and COO Gelo Torres, an e-commerce professional and entrepreneur.

“Together, they possess the necessary know-how to partner with and aggressively scale online native brands, starting in the Philippines which is in itself a massive opportunity,” said founding partner of M Venture Partners, Mayank Parekh, who is joining the board of Armada.