Woowa Brothers, the operator of South Korea’s largest mobile food ordering and delivery service app, Baedal Minjok, said Thursday it has raised 40 billion won ($36 million) from U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs in a new funding round.
The investment bank said it will have additional funding plans for the Korean startups, which are based on an innovative idea, to help it beef up marketing efforts and increase its footing in the global markets.
“With the new round of investment, Woowa Brothers will be able to launch its initiative to increase its presence in the world’s market earnestly,” said Kim Bong-jin, the founder of the Korean firm.
“The mobile app will change the landscape of the food delivery business in the Asian region.”
The startup, launched in 2010, has partnerships with around 145,000 restaurants and food franchises nationwide. Last month, around 4 million food orders and deliveries took place through the app.
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| Mobile app for food delivery service Baedal Minjok |
In line with its efforts to make a foray into global markets, the Korean startup established a joint venture, called Line Bros, with Line Corp. ― the Japanese affiliate of Naver Corp. ― to run a food ordering service called Line WOW in Japan last month.
The latest investment came as global venture capital firms are paying keen attention to Korean startups for mobile services.
VCNC, the operator of Between, a mobile messenger app for couples, has received a series of funds from the venture capital firm Softbank Ventures, and DeNA, a provider of mobile portal and e-commerce websites in Japan, since 2013.
Softbank Ventures and Chinese capital firm Cherubic Ventures invested around 21 billion won in Toss Lab, the operator of PC and mobile messenger and file sharing service Jandi.
Yogiyo, a food ordering service app, also attracted a round of funding earlier this year from global investors including Insight Venture Partners, which has made investments in social networking services Twitter and Tumblr.
“Korean startups, based on an innovative business idea and mobile technology, now have more opportunities to get funding from global startup incubators than before as the domestic startup ecosystem becomes mature and the number of mobile- based innovative ideas increases,” a market analyst said.
By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)
