Helsinki-based eBrands, an export platform that helps consumer brands scale globally, announced that it has secured €7.5M in an equity funding round, bringing its total funding raised to €50M.
The funding round was led by the Veikko Laine family office, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, and operative shareholders.
This new funding will help develop Apollo, eBrands’ AI tool that assists brands in expanding into 60 markets and sales channels without needing local infrastructure or large investments.
The platform simplifies supply chain, sales, finance, and compliance, making it easier for companies to enter new markets.
Additionally, the funding will also allow the Finnish company to extend its global reach and support more brands in navigating international expansion.
How eBrands differ from traditional models?
Led by Robin Bade, eBrands is an export platform that helps consumer brands scale globally through e-commerce and major retail channels.
The Finnish company offers an Expansion-as-a-Service model that allows partner brands to customise their support while seeing sales performance, customer behaviour, and operational efficiency.
“At eBrands, we operate as an extension of the brands we work with, rather than just a distributor. We have developed a proprietary software solution that provides brands with full visibility into their cross-border omnichannel sales velocity, making distribution channels transparent—unlike traditional models where the distributor operates as a “black box” to the extent that we have shared demographics data with our partner brands for them to be able to better address market needs,” explains Robin Bade CEO and co-founder of eBrands to Silicon Canals.
Additionally, the company offers two main solutions based on a brand’s sales strategy:
- Seamless D2C Integration – The company can integrate with a brand’s Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) channels as an invisible partner, managing local fulfillment, taxes, and compliance to simplify operations.
- Expansion into New Sales Channels – It also helps brands grow by expanding their presence in e-commerce marketplaces and traditional retail, maintaining direct contracts with major retailers like Walmart, Target, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
“Beyond technology and channel expansion, our warehousing models and fulfillment operations enable brands to benefit from economies of scale, ” adds Bade.
The Expansion-as-a-Service model combines a scalable infrastructure with Apollo’s AI-driven data and insights.
The company allows brands to benefit from lower costs without the burden of setting up costly and inefficient small-scale operations.
“Our model allows brands to scale globally with minimal operational burden while maintaining full transparency and control over their distribution channels,” he adds.
Scaling beyond Europe and North America
In 2024, the market expansion tool Apollo was successfully piloted with 10 partner brands, streamlining cross-border expansion between the EU, the UK, and North America.
“Our current focus markets are Europe, the UK, and North America. However, we require scale to enter new markets, which is why we carefully evaluate expansion opportunities as our portfolio of brands grows,” he explains.
“We’ve seen that brands are increasingly cautious about entering new markets alone, making a partnership model more appealing. While price and quality remain critical for success, cross-border tariffs pose a significant challenge—when brands sell directly, tariffs are applied at the consumer level, driving up prices and reducing competitiveness.”
In contrast, the Finnish company pays tariffs at the wholesale level, which lowers costs for consumers.
According to Bade, achieving this depends on having a strong operational infrastructure in the market, which they have developed to support their brand partners.
Balancing Risk: Dependence on major marketplaces
The Finnish company has developed its expertise by owning and operating 30 consumer brands, refining its model to support nearly 50 partner brands today.
Through eBrands, consumer brands can access global supply chains and connect with major retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, and Target.
Talking about the reliance on major marketplaces, he explains, “Major marketplaces do play a big role in sales, as they directly reflect consumer behaviour. For example, with Amazon accounting for approximately 50 per cent of U.S. e-commerce, it naturally represents a large portion of our sales.”
” However, we mitigate risk through a diversified brand portfolio, strong omnichannel strategies (trends change and new channels emerge), and geographic expansion, ensuring balanced growth across multiple sales channels and markets,” he adds.
eBrands’ sales channels cover over 75 per cent of consumer online shopping in the U.S., Great Britain, and Europe.
Since launching in 2020, eBrands has helped dozens of consumer brands, such as Mysoda, Coach Soak, and Bodyotics, grow globally by simplifying the complexities of international expansion.
With expertise in sales, marketing, supply chain, and market access, the company provides a structured, low-risk path to new markets.
Future roadmap: AI-powered consumer insights
Moving forward, the Finnish company is focused on advancing its data-driven intelligence to empower our brands.
“Our AI agents, trained on real transaction data and enriched with third-party data, such as weather patterns and news trends, help brands gain a deeper understanding of their consumers, far beyond what traditional analytics like graphs can reveal. For example, we have developed AI-powered consumer segment avatars that brands can interact with, providing real-time, conversational insights into consumer behaviour and preferences,” he concludes.
With a portfolio of +50 brands and advanced technology, eBrands has a team of 75 people and generates over €35M in revenue.
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