Although selling your company is a milestone in your business career, handing over the incorporation of your professional dreams to someone else is not quite an easy ordeal.

This is exactly the premise upon which Riccardo and Alessio Bruni started building the success story that is Heroes.

The two London-based siblings of Italian descent founded the platform amid the COVID-plagued global economic climate in June 2020 with the idea of acquiring and keeping businesses alive and thriving. Despite the atmosphere of heightened risk and obstacles, we can safely say their bold step is paying off.

Heroes is a fast-growing eCommerce company that obtains, manages and boosts small and medium-sized brands. The focus of Heroes is on Amazon FBA brands operating with a wide variety of product branches. In a true spirit of ambitious entrepreneurship, they always prioritize the best customer-rated and highest-ranking businesses.

Continue reading to uncover the whole story of Heroes!

International Academic Journey With An Italian Heart

First thing first, let us introduce you to the masterminds of this story.

Riccardo and Alessio Bruni are identical twin brothers of Italian origin born and raised in London. However, the blood and physical appearance were far from the only characteristics they shared and made them unique.

Ever since the formative years of education during the spring of their boyhood, Riccardo and Alessio both showed a special spark of ambition and creativity. The ideas they would come up with and their potential for innovation always impressed everyone around the two exceptional brothers.

Riccardo and Alessio’s early fascination with business and entrepreneurship foretold the extensive education that would pave the way to their prosperous career choices.

Riccardo Bruni’s first step in his rich higher education portfolio ended in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Queen Mary University of London, a leading English public research university. The promising young man’s academic journey reached its peak in the borders of his native Italy. In 2013, he obtained his master’s degree in the Department of International Management at Università Bocconi, one of the oldest and most eminent Italian private universities.

His brother Alessio, on the other hand, obtained an International Baccalaureate from the International School of Hamburg in 2011. He extended his knowledge in finance on an MBA student exchange program in the New York University Stern School of Business. As a cherry on top, he followed in his brother’s footsteps by choosing the International Management branch for his master’s degree in 2012 - this time in the famous London School of Economics and Political Science.

The Years of Previous Experience

Completing these years of thorough education in the field of business and finance across several European borders was just about to pay off for the ambitious brothers.

After obtaining their aforementioned master’s degrees, Riccardo and Alessio embarked on their successful separate career paths that would eventually cross on various occasions.

Riccardo Bruni was always highly aware of the prosperity that investing in businesses brings. So, before the idea of Heroes was born, he built up an impressive portfolio in that area.

Riccardo acquired a significant level of experience in the position of venture capital investor at EQT Ventures, the venture branch of the Swedish company EQT Partners. Afterward, he continued his career in M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) at Merril Lynch, an American investment management company that advises and supports businesses through broker services.

Similarly, Alessio started his job experience in M&A at a global investment banking company based in New York, Perella Weinberg Partners. In addition to that, he spent several years at the head of the retail division as vice president in Lazada, an international eCommerce company often deemed the South East Asian equivalent of Amazon.

Apart from their individual career paths and their groundbreaking Heroes startup, the two brothers also conjoined their forces for a VC-funded eCommerce direct-to-consumer health and wellness platform in 2018.

The Heroic Start

With all this knowledge and experience acquired in the expertise of investing and sustaining brands, there came a time for the brothers to embark on a new chapter of their professional portfolio.

In the middle of a global predicament of health risk and uncertainty which lead to a universal economic crisis as well, Riccardo and Alessio Bruni came up with the Heroes startup. It proved to be an idea predestined to leave a significant mark on the investment world.

It was June 2020 when the two brothers launched Heroes. Largely inspired by the American Thrasio, this is a technology-centered platform with a simple purpose: buying prosperous brands and giving them new prospects for a bright future on the market.

Heroes primarily operates with Amazon-driven businesses working on the FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) concept: third-party sellers that store their products in Amazon fulfillment centers for them to do the packaging and shipping.

The platform is here to offer a quality future for your quality brand: they deal with best-selling brands in a wide variety of industries including Baby, Pets, Homeware, Kitchenware, Outdoors, Sports, Garden, DIY, etc.

From Hardships to the Stars

As the founders of Heroes, Riccardo and Alessio were aware from the very beginning that while building this platform, they won’t be immune to financial difficulties. Their fears proved right, especially in this challenging business climate.

The Heroes platform was launched at the infancy of the investment market and it is the first of its kind dealing specifically with European Amazon marketplaces, which is a fact that carries a lot of responsibility. Nonetheless, with the eCommerce rise during the COVID pandemic, the competition is getting tough and crowded.

Raising the required funds was not easy - as Riccardo Bruni recalls in a Buy Box Experts podcast episode, they faced rejection from a lot of investors at the first stages of the platform’s development.

However, the brothers persevered and managed to emerge victoriously from all the obstacles.

First Major Funding Deals

Nearly half a year later, the still relatively young Heroes platform already got its name hitting headlines of newspapers reporting their first major funding rounds.

In November 2020, Riccardo and Alessio Bruni received $65 million worth of equity and debt funding from 360 Capital, Fuel Ventures, and Upper90. Other business angels in the deal include the co-founder and COO of GoCardless and Nested - Mark Robinson and Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas.

Another round of $200 million for Heroes followed up at the end of August this year, provided by Crayhill Capital Management - with the purpose of grasping the ownership of more brands.

Final Thoughts

While Riccardo and Alessio Bruni’s idea behind Heroes is not new to the market, their human approach to acquiring and operating brands surely is.

Today, Heroes holds its headquarters in London, UK. But, Before making a name for themselves, and after many rejections at the beginning, Heroes also had to stand tall among competitors like SoOum, Mall91, and BASE, just to name a few.

The ambitious, fast-growing London-based company with around 50 employers, consists of excellent professionals who will do anything to improve the experience of selling your brand. Further inspired by the investors’ growing support, they aim to cooperate with many new businesses and become Europe’s champions in their market.

Heroes guarantees to value your time, dedication, and experience. These people’s purpose is to stand by you and the responsibility towards you as a previous owner is their primary principle. They ultimately acquire your business with the goal of amplifying its success, not selling it on.

If you ever consider selling your Amazon FBA business, you deserve a buyer that will respect all the blood, sweat, and tears you poured into building your brand. Thus, Heroes is the right platform that will turn this kind of deal into a fair and respectful endeavor.