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.
Since publication, Sifted has been aware that the entity facing the petition is no longer part of the main Olsam business, following a restructuring last month. Sifted understands that Olsam's day-to-day activities are not affected.
Olsam 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.
This piece was updated on 1st November to reflect new information that the entity facing the petition is no longer part of the main Olsam entity.
