Woowa Korea gets $320 million from overseas

Woowa Brothers, the operator of the popular food delivery app Baedal Minjok, said Thursday that it succeeded in securing $320 million from major foreign investors including Sequoia Capital, famous for investing in leading tech companies such as Apple and Google.

According to Woowa Brothers, other major investors include China’s Hillhouse Capital – which is also known for investing in Chinese tech giants including Tencent and Baidu and led this round of funding – and the Singapore government-owned wealth fund GIC.

The food delivery app developer said the investment has solidified its position as a unicorn company – an unlisted start-up worth over $1 billion – as its post-money valuation is now worth 3 trillion won ($2.66 billion).

The company said it was able to secure such a large investment thanks to its exceptional growth.

The Baedal Minjok app, normally referred to as Baemin, now processes nearly 27 million food delivery orders every month, up from 20 million in July. The app has 8 million monthly active users.

Food delivery sales have more than doubled in the past three years. Baemin processed around 5 trillion won worth of food delivery orders this year, up from 2 trillion won in 2015.

Since its founding in 2010, Woowa Brothers has received a total of 506.3 billion won in investment. Previous investors include Goldman Sachs, which invested 40 billion won, and Naver, which invested 35 billion won.

“It’s significant that our company’s growth and future potential was recognized by reputable global investors,” said Oh Se-yoon, Woowa Brothers’ executive vice president and CSO.

Woowa’s business interests go beyond food delivery. Its other projects include developing delivery robots powered by AI and self-driving technology and building an online system to help restaurant owners manage revenue and customers.