Korean-based grocery startup, Kurly, raises $200M on a $2.2B valuation

Kurly — a startup in South Korea offering overnight grocery delivery services across the nation— in a recent extension has secured a deal of $200 million in a Series F funding round on July 9, 2021, valuing the startup at $2.2 billion valuing this startup more than 2x during the last year, the company verified. In April 2020, Kurly settled a funding round of Series E, closing $150 million at a valuation of $780 million.

Globally, online grocery startups proceed to pull in substantial funding, marking how much they have all risen significantly in the previous year of pandemic.

Co-led by Aspex Management, Sequoia Capital China, DST Global, and Hillhouse Capital — all previous corporate backers — with new investors Millennium Management and CJ Logistics Corporation. CJ Logistics is a strategic upholder as it has a deal in sight with Kurly to help grow its next-day delivery service to more wards across South Korea.

This latest round is an exciting beacon to the market that investors are enthusiastic about supporting the business on the back of more business potential.

Purpose of Investment

Kurly stated the venture would be utilised to create its tech stack, skill recruitment and increase the coverage of its overnight services.

With all e-commerce services Kurly advances to scale its overnight delivery service, those margins will improve. With $845 million in sales in 2020, the startup has been snowballing, reaching up to 124% over a year ago. It hasn’t revealed whether it is profitable or what its cutting rims are.

What the CEO has to say

Seul-A Kim, aka Sophie Kim, the CEO and founder of Kurly, said in a statement, “This funding round is proof of Kurly’s participation in transforming customer’s daily practice of carrying out grocery shopping at physical markets into a more convenient way of shopping online. By allowing a superior range of products through its innovative distribution service. The startup has also been successfully brought to the consumers at a reasonable price through service tech empowered by its exclusive data analytics. We are pleased to have new capital that would enable us to further invest in logistics base, people, and technology to keep innovating the mobile grocery store and enhancing the lives of consumers, producers and workers.”

What the Investors have to say

“We are eager to continue our assistance to Market Kurly with our fundraise,” said Hermes Li, the founder of Aspex Management. 

He added, “Korea is one of the fastest-growing and largest e-commerce workhouses internationally, and Kurly has been the head in e-Commerce innovation. They have created such a strong customer-centric brand centred around excellent product quality and user encounters. We consider a significant potential ahead of Kurly for development into other consumer categories and new geographies. Aspex is looking forward to years of growth with Kurly.”

For more extensive analysis and Market Intelligence reports feel free to approach us or visit our website: Venture Capital Market Intelligence Reports | VCBay.

We try our best to fact check and bring the best, well-researched and non-plagiarized content to you. Please let us know

-if there are any discrepancies in any of our published stories,

-how we can improve,

-what stories you would like us to cover and what information you are looking for, in the comments section below or through our contact form! We look forward to your feedback and thank you for stopping by!

Next Article