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| Promotional image for Market Kurly's early morning delivery service / Courtesy of Kurly |
By Anna J. Park
Kurly, operator of the grocery business Market Kurly, has officially kicked off its initial public offering (IPO) proceedings, submitting a preliminary IPO assessment request to the Korea Exchange (KRX) on Monday afternoon.
The bourse operator said its KOSPI market division received the preliminary IPO evaluation request documents earlier in the day.
The company has been preparing for the IPO, having tapped a group of underwriting firms for the process. Despite its hope to complete the listing sometime within the first half of this year, it is expected the firm would debut in the local stock market during the second half of the year.
Founded in 2014, the e-commerce grocery seller introduced the country's first early morning delivery service in 2015, attracting millions of mostly female customers. With annual revenues rising swiftly ever since, the firm's corporate valuation is estimated to be over 4 trillion won ($3.25 billion), and the value could rise as high as 7 trillion won with a successful listing.
As the firm's founder and CEO Sophie Kim holds a small stake of only 6.67 percent due to a series of investments received, a group of the company's major shareholders have agreed to take joint action, setting their lock-up periods at two years.
Last December, Kurly raised $210 million in the last round of pre-IPO investments from Hong Kong-based Anchor Equity Partners, some five months after a 225 billion won Series F investment. So far, Kurly has raised over 900 billion won from investors, one of the largest amounts ever received by a local e-commerce startup business.
Major investors of the firm include Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital, DST Global, DSC Investment and LB Investment.
