Blackstone-Founded E-Commerce ‘Roll-Up’ Firm Shuts Down

How bad is the slowdown in e-commerce growth? Ask Blackstone, one of the world’s largest investment firms.

Two years ago, a division of Blackstone that invests in consumer brands such as Supergoop and Spanx joined a second investor to commit $200 million to an e-commerce startup they had founded together. The startup, Kite, was pursuing a roll-up strategy that aimed to buy small consumer goods brands and provide them with a “tech stack,” software to handle marketing, manufacturing and distribution. But Kite only used around $25 million of the committed funds before shutting down earlier this year and laying off its staff of more than 25, according to two people involved in it.