South Korea’s answer to Amazon got a big boost today with a US$2 billion investment.
Coupang, the nation’s largest online retailer with US$2.4 billion in revenue last year, said that it got the funding from SoftBank’s Vision Fund, reports TechCrunch.
Photo credit: Coupang
This injection raises Coupang’s valuation from US$5 billion to $9 billion, according to multiple media outlets.
SoftBank funded Coupang to the tune of US$1 billion back in 2015.
No profits
Founded in 2010, the startup has been untroubled by Amazon. Jeff Bezos’ company has yet to enter Korea, despite the online shopping market being nearly as large as Japan’s.
But Coupang has yet to return a profit, racking up US$1.7 billion in losses over the past five years as it built up a vast delivery network. It’s aiming to hit US$5 billion in revenue this year.
SoftBank’s US$98 billion Vision Fund, which is bankrolled by US$45 billion from the Saudi Arabian government, has been under scrutiny since the alleged killing of writer and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by trained Saudi operatives at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Editing by Eileen C. Ang
(And yes, we’re serious about ethics and transparency. More information here.)
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