Looking at the Value Proposition and Business Strategy of USS Networks as a Brand Aggregator

Starting as an "Urban Sneaker Society" show, USS Networks was founded in 2019. Now they have grown into a holding group which manages 15 IP (intellectual property) & brand targeting Gen Z. Some of its brands include Urban Sneaker Society, USS Feed, Outbrake, Cretivox, Be Human, and Sonderlab.

Although the way it works is similar to brand aggregators others, however USS Networks claims to have quite a striking difference.

USS Networks Co-founder & CEO Sayed Muhammad revealed, the experience and network they have had since their inception has been one of the keys to their success in being able to develop brand which they have acquired.

"We have a goal to be able to expand the network. Starting from the marketing side, we use our network, because the ecosystem already has event which is large, not only in Indonesia but in Southeast Asia that can be utilized by brand sebagai distribution channels. We also have relationships with the media to the community from the fashion industry. This is what sets us apart from other platforms," ​​Sayed said.

Concept brand aggregators growing quite rapidly nowadays. There are already several similar players such as Hypefast, Tjufoo, Open Labs, and others. Not just fashion, other sectors also have brand aggregator-itself, for example Hangry who entered the culinary area.

Don't stop at brand fashion

In terms of products, USS Networks will not stop at fashion products only, in the future they also want to acquire IP media and even more NFTs.

In early 2022, they acquired the developer of the NFT project Karafuru. Karafuru itself is currently ranked 40 all-time transactions in the Open Sea with a total transaction of more than 1,5 trillion Rupiah. Beyond this, USS Networks still has a target to be able to acquire 3 to 4 brand another this year.

In addition, from the beginning the community was still a priority for USS Networks to be able to develop its business. On the other hand, the curation process utilizing research is also continuously carried out to acquire brand up to the correct IP.

"We are a company that profitable from day one and continues to grow every year. In 2021 we will grow more than 100% YoY and in 2022 we expect to grow more than 200% YoY, both in terms of revenue as well as profit,” said Sayed.

Business plan after funding

Aiming to accelerate business, USS Networks has secured an undisclosed amount of pre-series A funding. The funding was led by SALT Ventures. In addition, Tokopedia and OCBC NISP Ventura also participated in this round.

For SALT Ventures, the digital media and IP sector is one of the investment focuses because this sector is growing rapidly in Indonesia.

"Second founder very observant in seeing upcoming trends and can even create a trend. That is the recipe for USS Networks to grow very fast in the last 3 years," said SALT Ventures Managing Partner Danny Sutradewa.

The fresh funds will later be used by the company to acquire IP & IP companies. brand D2C that fits into the USS Networks ecosystem. Not only brand from Indonesia, their coverage has been expanded to the regional market.

"Due to our experience and network, the process of acquiring brands and IPs has not been a problem for owners brand. They already understand the concept that we offer, which in the end can help increase the brand's revenue even more," said Sayed.