Kwak Yeon-soo is a digital editor at The Korea Times creating, editing and curating digital content for the newspaper’s website, mobile app and social media. She previously covered a diverse array of cultural, political and business topics.
WeMakePrice receives W120 bil. from IMM Investment
WeMakePrice headquarters in Seoul / Courtesy of WeMakePrice
By Kwak Yeon-soo
By Kwak Yeon-soo
WeMakePrice, an e-commerce platform owned by Wonder Holdings, has received 120 billion won ($100 million) in fresh investments from IMM Investment, recovering from the status of capital impairment, the company said Tuesday.
The latest cash injection comes after game giant Nexon's holding firm NXC invested 250 billion won in the e-commerce platform in September.
WeMakePrice said it plans to use the funds to hire more employees, secure partner firms and improve e-commerce software.
IMM Investment, established in 1999, is one of the major investment firms in Korea focusing on Venture Capital, Mezzanine and Infrastructure. It currently operates 12 venture capital funds and 13 private equity funds, and has an accumulated fund of over 3 trillion won.
The investments will put WeMakePrice's value at 2.5 trillion won, compared with 1 trillion won in 2015.
“We expect our latest investment will enhance WeMakePrice's competitiveness, foster growth and provide customer benefits,” an IMM official said.
Armed with fresh funding, WeMakePrice is expected to carry out more aggressive marketing to compete with strong rivals such as Coupang and TMON.
“We will strengthen our presence in the fast-growing e-commerce market by investing aggressively to win a price war,” a WeMakePrice official said.
There is a heated competition among Korea's e-commerce platforms. Coupang, a loss-making e-commerce company backed by SoftBank's Vision Fund, received $2 billion in investments in November 2018. Its market value is priced at 10 trillion won.
WeMakePrice logged an operating loss of 39 billion won in 2018, down 9.3 percent from a year earlier. Its sales recorded 429.4 billion won.
According to a survey conducted by WiseApp, WeMakePrice was android users' third-favorite shopping app with 4.5 million users.
The company came after Coupang with 11.3 million visitors and 11st with 6.3 million users.