South Korean e-commerce leader Coupang is looking for investment-worthy businesses and M&A opportunities. Coupang said on March 31 that it will invest intensively in companies engaged in IT, commerce, digital contents and fintech.
A Coupang official said: “Under the investment principle of maximized customer value and respect for entrepreneurship, we will look for good investments. We expect that such efforts will lead to securing business leaders and excellent IT developers along the way.”
Coupang has newly created Investment Development Office and appointed as its head Jeon Sang-yeop, former head of an investment team at Capstone Partners.
Global IT titans like Amazon and Facebook and South Korean internet company Daum Kakao have been taking aggressive approaches towards investing in other businesses and M&As.
Amazon took over online shopping mall Zappos while Facebook acquired Instagram. Through such M&As, Amazon and Facebook have successfully diversified into new fields and are benefitting from the synergies gained from the mergers. Google’s acquisition of DeepMind led to the development of AlphaGo and then into a surge in the value of Google’s assets.
Coupang CEO Kim Bom-seok said: “We aim to attract entrepreneurs who value customer value and to discover future growth engines. I hope Coupang will play a role in enhancing customer value and make a position impact on the nation’s startup ecosystem.”
