Ridi attracts pre-IPO investment worth of W200 billion

Ridibooks' promotional image captured from its website / Courtesy of Ridibooks

By Anna J. Park

Ridi, the operator of the country's largest e-book business Ridibooks, is set to attract a 200 billion won ($170 million) pre-IPO investment later this year, boosting its estimated value to around 1 trillion won during its pre-listing phase.

As its corporate value was estimated at around 570 billion won in the previous Series E investment last year, it will have nearly doubled within a year if the pre-IPO investment goes as planned.

Founded in 2008, Ridi is a digital content company comprised of Ridibooks ― the country's leading e-book business ― a webtoon platform and animation streaming services. With its various businesses focused on the global content market, the company logged its first operating profit last year.

The company's annual revenue stood at 155.6 billion won with an operating profit of 2.6 billion won. With the capital raised during the pre-IPO investment, Ridi plans to strengthen its competitiveness in the digital content distribution and sale areas, particularly in the e-book and webtoon markets.

Ridi logo

While Ridi founder and CEO Bae Ki-sik holds 26 percent of the company's stock, it is expected to issue new shares as well as selling old ones throughout the pre-IPO investment phase.

Ridi plans to prepare for its IPO around latter half of next year or in early 2023 with Korea Investment & Securities as its main underwriter.