Kurlya South Korean next-day grocery delivery startup just announced it has called off its plan to go public amid deteriorating economic conditions that have delayed startups’ market debut.
“We have decided to delay the listing on the Korea Exchange (KOSPI) as market sentiment remained weak amid the uncertainties in the global market,” the company said in an emailed statement.
The startup passed the preliminary list screening on August 22, 2022. In South Korea, a private company must complete the initial public offering (IPO) process within six months of receiving initial approval for listing. Therefore, the IPO deadline for Kurly is February 22. Kurly will have to start from scratch if it wants to resume its listing.
“Kurly will resume the IPO at the optimal time when we can fully evaluate our valuation going forward,” the company said in its statement. “We have enough money to carry out the new business we planned.”
businessroundups.org covered Kurly’s pre-IPO funding of $210 million at a valuation of $3.3 billion in December 2021. But now the online grocery startup is reportedly valued at around $669 million, which is down about 78% .
Founded by Sophie Kim, CEO of Kurly, a former investment banker, the company expanded into non-grocery products such as cosmetics, personal care products and health supplements as part of an effort to increase sales or gross trading volume (GMV) before it closed. was placed on the market. In an interview with Bloomberg last March, Kim said her non-grocery products account for more than 20 percent of Kurly’s total GMV.
Last August, Kurly made its first overseas foray into Singapore, enabling consumers in Singapore to purchase ready-to-eat and ready-to-eat meals through an app called RedMart, owned by Alibaba’s Lazada.
Kurly has raised a total of approximately $761 million since its inception in 2015. Investors include DST Global, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital, Aspex Management, MiraeAsset Venture Investment, Anchor Equity Partners and strategic investors such as CJ Logistics and SK Networks.
