Thrasio Holdings Inc., a startup in the business of buying and restructuring brands for online sales on Amazon and other marketplaces, is forging a new financial course for its own operations.

Launched in 2018, Thrasio since then has “paid over half-a-billion dollars to sellers of 200-plus brands,” the company says on its website.

Greg Greeley, CEO, Thrasio

But to keep its aggregator strategy working under a severely weakened financial position, Thrasio said today it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced a restructuring support agreement with its creditors that “will eliminate approximately $495 million” of its debt and  defer all interest payments in the first year after emerging from bankruptcy. The restructuring agreement covers about 81% of Thrasio’s revolving credit facility lenders and about 88% of its term loan lenders.

In addition, Thrasio said it has received commitments from lenders for up to $90 million in new financing to buoy its ongoing operations. “This infusion of new capital is expected to provide sufficient liquidity to support the company throughout this process and beyond,” Thrasio said in a statement.

Thrasio’s bankruptcy case is in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

Thrasio CEO Greg Greeley said that, over the past year, the company had “made significant progress transforming the business and advancing our objectives to introduce hundreds of brands to millions of customers.”

Brand categories range from Kids to Culinary

Thrasio deals with merchants across several product categories, including Home, Cleaning, Kids Activities, Culinary, Outdoor and Fitness.

Thrasio’s brands include Beckham Hotel Collection and Veva in the Home category, Giggle ‘N Go and Chalkstatic in Kids Activities, and Willow & Everett and Thirteen Chefs in Culinary.

In a letter to Thrasio’s customers, Greeley said: “Over the past year, we have made significant progress to transform the business while focusing on sustainable profitability. The steps we are now taking will bolster our financial foundation so that we can further advance our objective to introduce hundreds of brands to millions of customers.”

Thrasio also said it expects to receive within days approval of several motions filed with the court seeking authorization to support ongoing operations, including paying without interruption employee wages, salaries and benefits.

The company’s bankruptcy proceedings came a few years after Josh Silberstein, one of Thrasio’s co-founders, said the aggregator made a profit of $100 million on 2020 revenue, according to TechCrunch. Silberstein is no longer with the company.

Promising a more positive course

In addition, TechCrunch notes that Thrasio said in 2021 that it had raised $1 billion at a company valuation of up to $10 billion, a valuation that secondary capital market firm Forge Global figured was $4.5 billion by 2022.

But Greeley promises that Thrasio is heading back to a more positive and steady course.

“Thrasio is one of the largest third-party sellers on the Amazon marketplace,” he said in the letter to customers. “With a strengthened balance sheet and new capital, we will be better equipped to support our brands, scale our infrastructure and enable future opportunities. Ultimately, these actions are designed to empower our brands to better serve customers.”

Thrasio has retained Kirkland & Ellis LLP as its legal counsel, Centerview Partners as financial advisor, and AlixPartners LLP as restructuring advisor. Court filings and other information related to the bankruptcy proceedings are available through a website administered by Thrasio’s claims agent, KCC LLC.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. [email protected].

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