Mobile grocery shopping operator Kurly has raised $200 million in their sixth funding round, pushing their post-money valuation to $2.2 billion.
This Series F was led by major existing investors including Aspex Management, DST Global, Sequoia Capital China and Hillhouse Capital.
New investors that signed up include Millennium Management, a global investment management firm with approximately $52 billion in assets under management, and CJ Logistics, which recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Kurly in a joint effort to broaden the latter’s overnight delivery services nationwide.
Kurly generated $845 million in sales in 2020, marking a 124% year-over-year growth. The operator of the “Market Kurly” mobile app believes that margins will also continue to grow as it achieves scale and operational efficiency.
With the fresh funds, Kurly plans to further advance its service technology and enhance operational efficiency. From innovating automated supply chain systems to augmenting ordering and payment platforms, Kurly is pinpointing its focused approach at e-commerce fulfillment to satisfy growing customer demands.
Also, Kurly plans to invest in a pipeline of top talents to engineer its innovations as well as in its logistics infrastructure and the expansion of its geographical footprint.
Last March, Kurly Company established its logistics facilities at Gimpo fulfillment centre, touted the largest temperature-controlled logistics centre in South Korea to date. It has allowed the company to procure more than twice as much order volume as before the facility was put up.
Further, Kurly has broadened its coverage of overnight delivery services to major cities in Chungcheong province last May and targets to introduce its feature services to southern provinces later.
Hermes Li, founder and Portfolio manager at Aspex Management, said they believe there is significant potential ahead of Kurly from expansion into other consumer categories and new geographies.
“(We have) been successful in bringing merchandises to customers at a reasonable price through service technology empowered by the use of (our) proprietary data analytics,” said Seul-A Kim, CEO and founder of Kurly.
