Brief: Ticket Monster pockets $115m to keep up with Korea’s ecommerce boom

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• South Korean ecommerce startup Ticket Monster has pocketed US$115 million in funding, it announced today. The cash is from Simone Investment Managers and previous investors, reports TechCrunch.
• This Ticket Monster doesn’t sell tickets and is not to be confused with the other Ticket Monster which does actually sell tickets. All clear? Good.
• Ticket Monster, sometimes shortened to TMON, hit a US$1.5 billion valuation with its 2016 funding, but this latest injection is a downround that sees it plummet to US$1.2 billion. The startup will use the new funds to boost its grocery offerings in the Super Mart section, which opened in 2015. TMON itself launched in 2010.
• TMON – previously acquired by LivingSocial and then Groupon, before being spun back out on its own in 2015 – is up against the better funded Coupang in Korea’s increasingly heated online shopping market.

Source: TechCrunch.