SINGAPORE (July 10): In 2003, Alex Low was a University of Washington sophomore running out of funds to pay his tuition fees.

He convinced his brother, Adam, who was then living in Singapore, that they should start a business selling used Singapore textbooks on Amazon.com. With $10,000 in capital from his brother, Low sold enough books on the e-commerce platform to finance the rest of his degree.

Today, the Low brothers’ textbook venture has become a full-fledged e-commerce distributor and retailer spanning 24 marketplaces in the US, Europe, Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia. Called Y Ventures, it distributes books, home and décor items, and fast-moving consumer goods such as soy milk powder. It recently started selling Korean skincare products.

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