Kurly, a South Korean online grocery business that offers nationwide next-day delivery, will go public in June of next year.
The business, which refuses to say how much it hopes to raise through an IPO, said it expects the company to be valued at $5.9 billion once it goes public.
The news comes after the company raised $200 million in a Series F round in July at a valuation of $2.2 billion.
Kurly’s IPO is expected to take place in June after the company files an IPO application as early as December and anticipates permission from South Korean financial authorities in February.
Kurly has reconsidered its proposal to list in the United States, opting instead for a Korean IPO. According to a Kurly representative, the firm does not have an outside development plan and will continue to focus on its domestic market. This is one of the reasons why Kurly is listed in South Korea.
Following the listing of Korean e-commerce business Coupang on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year, South Korean authorities have simplified IPO rules for Korea-based companies in order to encourage them to list on the local exchange.
Also Read: Debut of the Samsung Galaxy S22 may be postponed in favour of the Galaxy S21 FE
Sophie Kim, a former investment banker turned entrepreneur, founded Kurly in 2015.
The profits from the IPO will be utilised to expand the firm’s research and development, improve its order procedure, and improve its payment system, according to the Seoul-based online grocery startup. It also intends to hire more people.
According to the corporation, it now has almost 9 million users. According to the spokesman, it generated $853 million (1 trillion WON) in transactions in 2020 and hopes to create $1.7 billion by the end of this year.
Korea Exchange announced in March it will allow companies with an expected market capitalization of $855 million (1 trillion WON) or more to get listed even if they do not meet financial requirements.
The epidemic has fueled increased competition in the online food delivery market. Kurly’s domestic competitors, such as SSG.com, a Korean Shinsegae Group E-commerce platform arm, and Oasis Market, which just finished funding, are also planning to go public in 2022.
According to investment banking sources on Mar. 15, South Korea’s Kurly Inc., better known by its brand name Market Kurly, has just cancelled its contract with IPO manager Samsung Securities Co., only days after its founder and CEO Sophie Kim declared plans to go public within the year.
Samsung Securities was chosen by the online grocery meal delivery business in 2018 to pursue a domestic stock market listing. However, the startup’s first public offering was postponed due to a failure to fulfil IPO standards.
Market Kurly’s nearly three-year efforts to go public may have come to naught due to the contract cancellation with the Korean brokerage firm. However, it fuels market speculation that the premium cuisine and gourmet food delivery firm may begin the process of listing in the United States, following in the footsteps of bigger domestic competitor Coupang Corp., which debuted on the New York Stock Exchange last week.
Her comments came at a time when Coupang’s IPO in the United States garnered a higher-than-expected $4.6 billion. Coupang, which pioneered same-day, or ‘rocket delivery,’ service across the country, has hired Goldman Sachs to prepare its ten-year NASDAQ listing, as well as JPMorgan Chase and Allen & Company.
South Koreans work some of the world’s longest hours, with young, upwardly mobile executives frequently too preoccupied to go grocery shopping in a traditional store. Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, attempted to leverage this disadvantage to its advantage. It developed “virtual shops,” which are basically product displays on the walls of subway stations and bus stops. Commuters, particularly the tech-savvy and ultra-busy, might use their cellphones to scan the QR codes of the items on sale and place their purchases while waiting for their trains or buses. Tesco “virtually” constructed a new market based on a country’s lifestyle in this case study.
