DSC Investment acquires 6.5% of early morning delivery biz Team Fresh

Team Fresh's logistics center / Korea Times file

By Anna J. Park

DSC Investment announced that it recently acquired a 6.5 percent stake in Korea-headquartered logistics company Team Fresh for 6.5 billion won (5.84 million).

Founded in 2018 by CEO Lee Sung-il, Team Fresh has focused on providing cold-chain platform services, such as early morning deliveries. Based on its strength in cold-chain early-morning deliveries, the company now has some 200 e-commerce clients, including eBay Korea, Brandi and Rankingdak.com.

The startup's annual revenue is increasing quickly ― in 2018, the company logged revenue of 2.7 billion won, which increased more than 14 times in just two years. In 2020, Team Fresh recorded an annual revenue of 39 billion won, a 267 percent jump from its 2019 total of 14.6 billion won.

Team Fresh was started by attracting 2.5 billion won worth of seed investment in 2018, followed by 4.5 billion won of Series A investments the following year. In April 2020, the company's corporate valuation stood at 8.5 billion won with Series B investments of 1.6 billion won. Early in 2021, the firm received Series C investments from various venture capital firms worth 30 billion won.

Team Fresh is planning to spend the invested money in improving the effectiveness of the firm's delivery services by developing its existing logistics infrastructure as well as cold-chain centers.

In 2015, DSC Investment made an early investment of about 4 billion won in Market Kurly, an online grocery shopping business that has become one of Korea's unicorn companies with nearly 1 trillion won in annual revenue logged last year. With its investment in Team Fresh, the venture capital company is confirming its strength in cold-chain platform businesses.

“The company will enjoy more growth potential, as the country's online grocery market continues to grow,” an official from DSC Investment said.