Bezar, the design marketplace, has been acquired by AHAlife Holdings Limited (ASX:AHL), a global online marketplace for curated luxury lifestyle products.  Bezar will be joining AHAlife to continue its mission to connect the best the world has to offer with discerning individuals from around the world.

Since launching in March 2015, Bezar has featured thousands of designers and creative entrepreneurs, building a dignified platform to showcase their designs, grow their brands, and focus more time on innovating new products. AHAlife is a curated luxury marketplace with over 3,000 handpicked designers and artisans in 45 countries. By creating a vibrant community which values creativity, AHAlife is empowering independent designers and artisans to thrive online. The AHAlife and Bezar mission and marketplace business models are highly aligned and complementary, leveraging a strong commitment to designers and loyal customer audiences, powered by AHAlife’s enterprise grade technology platform allowing for rapid growth and scale.

 “We are delighted to partner with Shauna, Sachin and the AHAlife team,” said Bradford Shellhammer, Founder and CEO at Bezar. “I’ve known Shauna for over five years, and we’ve been long time admirers of AHAlife’s mission and impressive marketplace technology platform. Since Bezar’s inception, we’ve been seeking ways to work together, sharing the strong belief that the best way to support independent designers was to build a sustainable marketplace for them. This past summer, we began to formalize the combination of our businesses. With this merger, we’re able to further support our mutual vision of building the leading global online marketplace for curated products.”

 AHAlife Founder and President Sachin Devand said: “The joining of our two marketplaces makes perfect sense and cements our position as the number one online marketplace for luxury designers. Our technology platform will seamlessly incorporate Bezar’s users and designers. Together we provide both our designers/brands and our users with the best environment to interact and access interesting and unusual products. This acquisition is fully aligned with our growth and expansion strategy for 2016 allowing us to gain market share with access to highly qualified and engaged audience.”

“From the start, I highly respected Bradford’s mission with Bezar – he’s done an amazing job with the brand, aesthetic and curation,” said Shauna Mei, Founder and CEO at AHAlife added.

"Bezar was able to build an instantly recognizable brand in a short amount of time, proving its ability to support designers in a crowded space and differentiate itself from other ecommerce experiences.  Bradford has built a lifetime career in retail and ecommerce, and we shared his strong view that the marketplace was the best sustainable way to support designers. We were impressed with the team’s ability to attract a highly loyal and engaged audience, and we’re excited to bring Bezar under the AHAlife family and platform."

 As part of the acquisition, Bradford Shellhammer will become Advisor to the combined company, and key members of the Bezar team will join AHAlife in its New York headquarters.

 

About Bezar

Bezar is the design marketplace offering carefully curated modern pieces in accessories, art, house, and jewelry. Based in New York City, Bezar connects emerging designers with millennials and design enthusiasts, enables a connection between established brands and new audiences, and allows shoppers to discover authentic products from the world's best designers.

 

About AHAlife

AHAlife Holdings Limited (ASX:AHL) is a digital marketplace for consumers of luxury items and designer products. The Company’s 449,000+ customers purchase items directly from a community of more than 3,000 handpicked designers and artisans in 45 countries. AHAlife’s business model involves a drop-ship approach, allowing wholesalers to ship directly to customers leaving no inventory risk for the Company