Team Fresh secures $6 mn via stake sale to DSC Investment

Team Fresh secures  mn via stake sale to DSC Investment
Jong-woo Kim 1
2021-04-27 14:49:51 jongwoo@hankyung.com
Startups

South Korea-based venture capital firm DSC Investment announced on Apr. 27 that it has acquired a 6.5% stake, valued at around 6.5 billion won ($5.8 million), in a cold chain startup Team Fresh as the flourishing e-commerce industry fuels investors' expectations for the company's growth.

Team Fresh was founded in 2018 by Lee Sung-il, a former Market Kurly employee who was in charge of running early morning delivery services at the premium grocery delivery business, Market Kurly.

The logistics startup operates a comprehensive cold-chain platform, including third-party logistics for firms that sell fresh goods; early morning delivery services; food ingredient distribution; and fulfillment services. The company's portfolio of some 200 clients includes e-commerce giants such as eBay Korea and fashion platform Brandi.

Since its inception, Team Fresh has seen a strong growth curve, having logged revenue of 2.7 billion won in 2018, which surged to 39 billion won in 2020.

The company plans to use the proceeds to roll out an online-to-offline (O2O) service that will directly connect shippers with transportation suppliers. Team Fresh will also set up regional logistics hubs to handle early morning delivery services and improve fulfillment efficiency by establishing an automated cold storage logistics center.

Through the latest investment, DSC Investment will be able to advance into the cold chain value chain segment. Earlier in 2015, the VC firm had invested around 4 billion won in Market Kurly as an early-stage investor.

“Team Fresh will boast strong growth potential aligned with the growing online food distribution market,” said Shin Dong-won, director at DSC Investment.

Team Fresh raised 2.5 billion won in Seed round when it first launched. The company secured an additional 4.5 billion won in a Series A round in February 2019 and went on to raise 16 billion won in a Series B round in April 2020 with a valuation of 85 billion won. Last month, the company received 30 billion won from the Series C round.

Write to Jong-woo Kim at jongwoo@hankyung.com
Danbee Lee edited this article.

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