Coupang, one of the largest e-commerce companies in South Korea, has raised $2 billion more from SoftBank’s Vision Fund according to Reuters. SoftBank previously invested $1 billion in Coupang back in 2015. Reuters’ sources said that this round of funding values Coupang at $9 billion.
According to Statista, Coupang saw about 2.68 trillion won (over $2.38 billion) in revenue last year. Coupang reported a loss of 1.9 trillion won in the last five years as the company has been reinvesting in new technology and logistics. But Coupang’s revenue doubled in the past year and it is approaching $5 billion this year.
Coupang founder and CEO Bom Kim told Reuters that the $2 billion will allow the company to invest more in its technology platforms to enable innovation. For example, Coupang is also known for its “Rocket Delivery” service — which guarantees delivery within 24 hours. And the company recently launched a “Dawn Delivery” service.
SoftBank’s previous $1 billion was marked down to $700 million after the Coupang stake was moved to the Vision Fund this year. And the SoftBank $98 billion Vision Fund also recently invested $3 billion in U.S. based shared office space company WeWork.
“Coupang is becoming significantly more efficient than when we made our first investment and has a clear path to profitability,” added SoftBank Investment Advisers partner and Coupang board member Lydia Jett via Reuters. “And we understand that this company will be profitable in the near term in core business.”
Coupang was reportedly considering going public in 2019, but that will likely get pushed back since the company raised this round. Jett said that the plan is still to go public, but the company now still has a lot of room to continue expanding the value proposition for customers before doing so.
