April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Yanolja, operator of the most popular motel-booking app in Korea, on July 27 announced that it has decided to acquire Singapore-based startup Zenrooms for US$150 billion.

Yanolja confirmed that it is acquiring the management rights of the Singapore-based company but declined to state the exact size of the stake. 

Established in 2012, Zenrooms operates motel-booking service app in Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Its growth rate has reached over 185 percent on average annually since it was established.

“Southeast Asia is a popular destination among many foreign and domestic tourist,” Yanolja Vice President Kim Jong-yoon said in a statement. “We thought that demand for the motel-booking app will further increase (in Southeast Asian market).”

Yanolja has been trying to expand its presence overseas lately. The Korean startup in March also announced that it has decided to form a partnership with an affiliate of e-commerce giant Rakuten to expand its presence in Japan.

Yanolja was established in 2007 and has secured funds worth 151 billion won (US$134.88 million) from investors, including Hanwha Asset Management and SBI Investment that funded 30 billion won and 1 billion won, respectively. The Korean company’s sales reached 54.5 billion won, while posting 11.6 billion won in operating loss. It is the first motel-booking app in Korea that has more than 1 million reservations per month on average.

Moreover, the Korean company also recently picked Mirae Asset Daewoo as its IPO manager and is preparing to go public. The valuation of the Korean startup is expected to be around 700 billion won.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)