Korean e-commerce site Coupang has raised $300 million in new funding to build out its mobile first approach and expand its logistics network.
This latest funding round was led by BlackRock Private Equity Partners, with participation from Wellington Management Company, LLP, Greenoaks Capital Management, and Rose Park Advisors.
Coupang’s founder Bom Kim told TechCrunch that the company will be investing in the technology behind its mobile apps, which generate 70 per cent of the company’s revenue and 80 per cent of total traffic to its site. It was also be expanding its logistics network, which can already make same-day deliveries, cutting this down to a few hours in some parts of Korea.
The Seoul-based company made $100 million in a funding round in May led by Sequoia Capital, which put its valuation at over $1 billion. This figure has grown since then, and its latest funding is an upround, but the company did not announce its current valuation.
Coupang’s main competition is eBay Korea, which normally deals with C2C sales, while Coupang is B2C, focusing on slight different market.
“Our view is that this is still the very early stages of e-commerce,” Kim told TechCrunch. “We all know what is going on with Amazon and Alibaba, but the mass of commerce is still occurring offline.”
“We have an opportunity because of [South Korea’s] density and mobile infrastructure to do things that e-commerce companies will do in other countries eventually,” he added.
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