Thrasio, Perch: Amazon aggregators aren’t doing so hot

Deals, whether via funding rounds or acquisitions, say a lot about the state of a startup sector and what investors are thinking about it. Sometimes, though, a lack of deals tells us more.

Bloomberg reported that Victory Park Capital was looking, and struggling, to find a buyer for its stake in Perch, a startup that has raised more than $900 million in debt and equity to acquire and aggregate brands already selling on Amazon. Victory Park Capital couldn’t be reached for comment.

Now, I know I’ve written numerous times before that many of the highly valued companies that are now struggling to raise, or in this case unable to bring in outside investors, are fundamentally good companies that are just bogged down by overinflated valuations or complicated capital tables. And sure, maybe some of that rings true for Perch right now, too, but based on other data points coming out of the Amazon aggregator space, that doesn’t seem to be the root of the issue.