Korea's Shinsegae raises another $251m for e-commerce platform

The two investors have subscribed to 3.99m shares at KRW 5,000 apiece, according to a filing. This follows a combined commitment of KRW 1trn in 2018, which coincided with Shinsegae spinning out the online operations of two subsidiaries – Shinsegae Department Store and discount store chain operator E-mart – into a single platform.

Korea’s traditional retail conglomerates have been relatively slow movers in e-commerce, allowing three independent players to steal a march: Coupang, Tmon, and Wemakeprice. They face competition from eBay’s Gmarket and Auction services. Coupang went public last year, raising USD 4.55bn in the US, although the company now trades below its IPO price.

Meanwhile, the industry has been thrust into consolidation mode with incumbents like Shinsegae coming to the fore. In the past 12 months, SSG has acquired W Concept, a dedicated fashion e-commerce platform, and picked up eBay Korea. The latter deal enabled it to usurp Coupang to become the second-largest player in the market after Naver Corporation’s platforms.

Other recent private equity activity in Korea’s e-commerce space includes MBK Partners agreeing to buy a controlling stake in KoreaCenter, an e-commerce services provider with a strong focus on cross-border business, for KRW 491.7bn across several equity and debt transactions.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Expansion
• South Korea
• TMT
• Affinity Equity Partners
• BlueRun Ventures
• Growth capital