Newswire: Karrot now at 3x🦄
It started with a real simple notion — let users trust each other, and let users also give to one another. And this month Karrot, after 5 years of growing from a simple free second hand item trading platform, entered unicorn status, thanks to the Series D backings of DST Global, Aspex, and Reverent. Kakao Ventures along with other existing investors SoftBank Ventures Asia, Goodwater, Altos, Strong and Capstone have participated (again) in this round.
The eponymous Karrot service, or “Daangn Market”, a playful use of word carrot (“dang geun”) and abbreviation of “near you” (“dangshin geuncho”) in Korean, is hundred-folds more than just a C2C used goods app. With newly injected $160M it will take it even further to be the one-stop shop solution provider based on where you live, spanning from shoeing in other on-demand services such as home cleaning (Clean Lab, another KV portfolio, and also another Kakao alum founding team), neighborhood bulletin board (“have you seen my earbuds around the parking lot?”), mom-’n-pop business promotions, or payment/finance for everyday Karrot users.
And by everyday, we really mean everyday. A third of South Korea is locked into and can’t get enough of Karrot at this point.
Congratulations on the fundraising achievement for both Gary and Paul Kim, and also others at Karrot. Couldn’t be more proud!
Bloomberg / TC coverage:
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-17/softbank-backed-karrot-becomes-2-7-billion-korea-unicorn
- https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/17/south-korean-online-secondhand-marketplace-danggeun-market-raises-162m-at-a-2-7b-valuation/
Korean coverages:
