Octillion was founded in November 2020. In the simplest form, we’re an eCommerce acquisition company that acquires, operates, and builds inclusive and sustainable consumer brands in the health, beauty, food, and beverage sectors.
Our company was born from a desire to make a difference for all consumers by building digital native brands that are inclusive, sustainable and good for both the people and the planet.
We do this by identifying and acquiring small profitable brands with huge potential and improving their operational efficiencies with a sustainable, inclusive and multi-channel expansion approach that can unlock a plethora of opportunities for our brands.
As the first minority-led eCommerce acquisition company, we understand the social and commercial impact of inclusive consumer brands and because of this, we’re skilled in identifying profitable, minority-owned brands, with strong communities that others ignore or can’t get access to. We also acquire non-minority owned brands with the view to rolling out diversity and inclusion led growth strategies.
Tell us a bit more about your backgrounds?
Ayo: I’m Ayo Disu and I’m the co-founder of Octillion. My successes range from working on the investment team at a $200M private equity fund where I was exposed to buy-side processes and covered sectors such as FMCG, TMT, and financial services to process codification and leading digital transformation change for the non-profit arm of a $500M family office.
I have a BSc in management from the University of Central Lancashire, UK, an MSc in Management from Cass Business School, UK, I also hold an MSc in Business Innovation and Electronic Business for which I was awarded an international merit scholarship from Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. I am also an affiliate alumni membership at the Center for Innovation Management Research UK, and some of my work contributes to research and teaching at the Birkbeck Centre for Innovation Management.
Kunle: I’m Kunle and I’m the co-founder of Octillion. I’ve been showing businesses how to surf the tides of commercial trends and create opportunities for scale for over ten years in various roles. Having worked with global businesses such as Alibaba.com, Mastercard, BigCommerce and many more, I have extensive knowledge of the eCommerce world and what it takes to scale an eCommerce business.
I’m an economics graduate with an MSc in e-business management from Warwick Business School, and I’ve acted in the capacity of Fractional CMO and Advisor at a range of eCommerce businesses from start-ups to digital transformation initiatives of brick-and-mortar retail brands. I’ve also worked with Facebook, SAP and the BBC in the UK. I also host a fairly popular eCommerce podcast: 2X eCommerce (the link should be embedded), and with over 300 interviews i have gained and shared insights on the macro trends of markets since 2014.
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How did you come up with the idea for the company?
Octillion takes advantage of an opportunity that was identified after a thorough analysis and diligence of several eCommerce businesses. Conversations, research, and analysis revealed that successful eCommerce businesses which were started as a ‘side-hustle’ a hobby, and a way to provide a second passive income could obtain proof of concept and generate consistent revenues despite being run in an unstructured manner and without strategic development and operational planning.
This led to the revelation that if such businesses could be repeatedly identified and complemented by the instatement of a thorough business strategy and competent personnel across several business functions, such eCommerce businesses could be scaled and subsequently exited at six, seven and eight-figure valuations.
What can we hope to see from Octillion in the future?
We are working towards building a portfolio of 20-25 inclusive and sustainable brands that constantly delight our customers and community. Our aim is pretty ambitious, but we believe that with our expertise, we want to Liberate commerce founders through hassle-free exit while we build on their legacy, nurture and transform the brand.
In terms of what you can expect to see from us, we aim to obtain a range of industry-leading eCommerce brands in the health, beauty, food and beverage industries that champion sustainability and diversity at the centre of what they do.
