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Courtesy of Danggeun Market |
Danggeun Market, operator of hyperlocal e-commerce app Karrot, said Wednesday it has fetched a $162 million funding in a series D round with an enterprise valuation of $2.7 billion.
The latest round of funding, led by Hong Kong-based later-stage venture capital house DST Global, was joined by Aspex Management and Reverent Partners. Also taking part in the fundraising were existing investors Goodwater Capital, Altos Ventures, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Kakao Ventures, Strong Ventures and Capstone Partners.
The news comes a year after Danggeun Market snapped up $33 million in a series C funding round in June 2020.
With $205 million in funding raised so far, Danggeun Market has become a unicorn, or a privately-owned company with a valuation of over $1 billion. Korea was home to 15 such companies as of end-June, according to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
The Korean equivalent to the US-based Nextdoor allows its users to buy and sell secondhand goods, fresh produce and essential services within their neighborhood. The company said it will use the proceeds to enhance its technology for its online marketplace service, recruit about 100 more staffers and boost foreign market expansion.
Danggeun Market currently operates the international edition of its Karrot app in 72 local communities in four countries -- Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States -- in addition to Korea.
Danggeun Market was co-founded by Gary Kim and Paul Kim in 2015. The app has seen an exponential growth, with its monthly active users having jumped nearly 30-fold in the past three years to 14.2 million as of January.
In a move to turn Karrot into a full-fledged e-commerce marketplace, Danggeun Market is poised to launch its own payment service later this year, awaiting approval from local financial authorities.
By Son Ji-hyoung (
consnow@heraldcorp.com)
