Korea's Danggeun Market raises $162m at $2.7b valuation

Aspex Management and Reverent Partners also joined the round. Existing investors Goodwater Capital, Altos Ventures, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Kakao Ventures, Capstone Partners, and Strong Ventures reupped. It brings total funding since the company's inception in 2015 to $205 million.

Danggeun Market offers a mobile-first hyperlocal classified service for used goods and local community ads. It is said to have grown 3x a year since 2018. There are currently more than 21 million registered users and 15 million monthly active users (MAUs). This compares to 500,000 MAUs in January 2018.

The C2C offering spans clothing, housewares, electroncis, and used cars, as well as fresh produce and services such as cleaning and education. Market share in the Korean secondhand goods space was said to be 77% as of April. The company claims that Karrot also supports around 300,000 small business affiliates.

The fresh capital will be used to expand an international footprint that currently includes Japan, the UK, and Canada. There are also plans to invest in new business lines, hire additional staff, build out the artificial intelligence recommendation system, and launch a payment tool. Licensing for Karrot Pay is expected to be delivered as early as September.

"COVID-19 highlighted the importance of people wanting to connect to their neighbors and community. When meeting a friend for a simple coffee can no longer be taken for granted, we realize all the more importance of our relationships and community," Eric Kim, co-founder of Goodwater, said, according to TechCrunch.

"Danggeun Market's service bridges the offline and online world, enhancing both in-person interactions as well as purely digital ones."

Danggeun's valuation represents a 15x increase versus 2019, when it was valued at around $170 million. There are an estimated 15 unicorns in Korea, including fellow e-commerce players WeMakePrice, Tmon, and Kurly, the latter of which is also backed by DST and Aspex. Tmon and Kurly are targeting domestic IPOs.

The largest operator in this space is Coupang, which received $3.5 billion in private funding from investors including SoftBank and Altos before raising $4.5 billion in a US IPO in March.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Consumer
• Expansion
• South Korea
• DST Advisors
• Goodwater Capital
• Altos Ventures
• SoftBank Ventures Asia
• Kakao
• e-commerce
• TMT