Danggeun Market's valuation soars rapidly to 2 trillion won

Logo of Danggeun Market

By Anna J. Park

Danggeun Market, Korea's popular secondhand marketplace application, is seeing its corporate value grow rapidly, currently exceeding over 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion).

According to the investment banking industry, the valuation of the country's largest secondhand goods trading services platform was estimated at around 1.2 trillion won at the start of the year, when the startup attempted to attract investment.

However, heated interest from venture capital firms ended up boosting the application's valuation to 2 trillion won this month, doubling its estimated value in less than four months.

Market insiders believe Danggeun Market's value could easily rise to around five trillion won, considering that it ultimately aims to expand its services to global markets. Bearing this in mind, the company is said to be reviewing ways to seek investment only from foreign investors.

Danggeun Market's rising valuation was also affected positively by Coupang's recent successful NYSE listing. Given that the company's value was assessed at 200 billion won in September 2019, when it received 40 billion won from various venture capital firms in Series C investments, the startup's valuation has soared 10-fold in just 18 months.

Danggeun Market's official mascot

Co-founded in 2015 by two former Kakao employees Kim Jae-hyun and Kim Yong-hyun, the company has fast grown into Korea's No.1 secondhand goods trading service with a 77 percent market share and over 13.2 million users. While its exact revenue for last year hasn't yet been made public, the firm has been expanding by three to four times its size annually.

According to local application analysis business App Annie, Danggeun Market was the country's third-most downloaded application in the first quarter of 2020, behind Coupang Eats and Zoom.

Danggeun Market has so far won some 47 billion won in investment from U.S.-based venture capital firms, including Altos Ventures, Strong Ventures and Goodwater Capital. SoftBank Ventures as well as Korea-headquartered firms Kakao Ventures and Capstone Partners have also invested in the app.