Korean agritech marketplace’s valuation rises to $500m as it bags series C money

South Korea-based Tridge, a digital trading and market intelligence platform for food and agriculture buyers and suppliers, announced it has raised US$60 million in its series C financing round from Forest Partners.

Photo credit: Tridge

With the fresh funding round, the company aims to inch closer to unicorn status – its current valuation after the raise stands at US$500 million. In April, Tridge was valued at US$140 million as part of a previous financing round.

The new investment will help the firm scale its fulfillment service to meet the increasing demand from food businesses amid the supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic.

Founded in 2015 by Hoshik Shin, a commodity investor at Deutsche Bank and the Korea Investment Corporation, Tridge is a digital marketplace to help buyers and suppliers agree on fairer prices and deals. The platform has developed a data set of over 300 million prices and more than 1.6 billion trade data points, which cover 1,000 items in the agriculture and food sector.

“The food and agriculture sector is one of the most fragmented sectors, and buyers and suppliers struggle to find the right information or partner,” said Shin.

According to the company, it currently engages over 300,000 visitors – including buyers and suppliers like Del Monte, Dole, and COFCO – and aims to expand its physical operations by setting up businesses and warehousing facilities in 50 countries.

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Tridge expects the revenue for its fulfillment business to hit US$300 million by the end of 2021, with 1,500 purchase requests currently being made by clients every month, according to the firm. It has also amassed 50,000 buyers since formally launching its market intelligence and fulfillment services in October 2020.

The company says it has tripled its headcount since early 2020 and plans to add 500 more employees to its organization by the end of 2021.