Anchor, Aspex re-up in Korea’s Kurly
Kurly, a Korean grocery delivery platform that abandoned its planned domestic IPO earlier this year, has raised KRW 120bn (USD 91m) from existing investors Anchor Equity Partners and Aspex Management.
The company said in a filing that it had decided to issue 1.81m shares at KRW 66,148 apiece. More than 80% of the allocation will go to Anchor, which committed KRW 250bn to Kurly in pre-IPO funding in December 2021. At the time, the company was valued at KRW 4trn.
On closing the previous round, Kurly said it had already selected underwriters for the IPO, which was scheduled for the first half of 2022. It also pledged to list domestically rather than overseas, taking advantage of a regulatory change that allows loss-making companies to feature in the benchmark KOSPI if their market capitalisation exceeds KRW1 trillion.
The IPO filing was made in March 2022 and won preliminary approval five months later. Kurly announced in January that it would postpone the listing, citing worsening investment sentiment amid global economic uncertainty. The company said efforts would resume when it “can receive a fair valuation.”
Early-morning service is Kurly’s key specialisation and differentiator. Within Seoul, the company claims to provide a full cold chain system capable of taking orders made before 11 p.m. and delivering them by 7 a.m. the next day. A partnership with CJ Logistics was announced in 2021 with an initial focus on expanding in the Chungcheong region before going nationwide.
The consumer-facing platform, Market Kurly, is positioned as especially attuned to food trends. A dedicated team for curating unique and rare product lists is featured as part of the offering. Towards the end of last year, the company sought to replicate this model in the beauty products space.
E-commerce accounts for more than 90% of Kurly’s revenue, with the rest coming from logistics agency and payments services and sales of own-brand products.
Revenue reached KRW 2.04trn for the 12 months ended December 2022, up from KRW 1.56trn a year earlier. However, the company’s losses also continued to widen. It posted an operating loss of KRW 233.5bn in 2022 compared to KRW 217.7bn in 2021.
The Anchor-led round came five months after DST Global, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital, and Aspex led a USD 200m Series F at a valuation of USD 2.2bn. Kurly was worth USD 780m in May 2020 when DST was the solo lead in a USD 170m Series E.
Other investors in the company include SK Networks, Translink Capital, Fuse Venture Partners, UTC Investment, Korea Investment Partners, Capstone Partners, and Mirae Asset Venture Investment.
More on North Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.