South Korea’s Danggeun Market, the company behind secondhand marketplace Karrot, has raised $162 million in a Series D led by DST Global, the investment firm headed by billionaire Yuri Milner.
Aspex Management and Reverent Partners joined the round while existing investors such as Goodwater Capital, Altos Ventures, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Kakao Ventures, Strong Ventures and Capstone Partners made follow-on funding.
This round brings Danggeun Market to the unicorn club with a valuation of $2.7 billion, per a TechCrunch report. To date, it has raised capital of a total $205 million.
The company plans to strengthen its capabilities in local commerce with Danggeun Pay, or Karrot Pay, which is set to launch this year.
In addition, the proceeds will also be used for further global expansion, business diversification, R&D, investment in advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning technology and recruitments.
Founded in 2015, Karrot is a hyperlocal community app that promoted buying and selling of second-hand goods locally.
Since its launch, it has become South Korea’s largest second-hand marketplace and second-biggest e-commerce company. The company claims its total registered users exceed 21 million. Danggeun Market’s app has a presence in the UK, US, Canada and Japan.
Lead investor DST Global’s international bets include some of the world’s biggest and most influential technology companies, including Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, Alibaba, and Xiaomi, among others. In India, the investment firm has backed Flipkart, Ola, Byju’s, Swingy, Udaan.