April 20, 2024

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WeMakePrice, an e-commerce platform owned by Wonder Holdings, is expected to secure 400 billion won ($334 million) in funds from existing investors -- game giant Nexon Korea and IMM Investment -- industry sources said on Oct. 10.

Nexon’s holding firm NXC and IMM Investment will inject 250 billion won and 150 billion won, respectively. The latest funding came four years after NXC and IMM Investment poured 100 billion won and 6 billion won, respectively. 

WeMakePrice headquarters in Seoul WeMakePrice

A portion of NXC’s 250 billion won will come from the company’s recent investment in Wonder Holdings, which owns WeMakePrice and game studios Wonder People and A.Storm.

In August, NXC bought 11.1 percent of Wonder Holdings for 350 billion won. In return, Heo Min, the founder of Wonder Holdings, joined Nexon as an external adviser.

Heo also founded Neople, best known for hit game Dungeon Fighter. In 2008, Heo sold the company to Nexon for 380 billion won.

This round of investments puts WeMakePrice’s value at 2.7 trillion won, industry sources said, compared with about 1 trillion won in 2015.

Armed with fresh funding, WeMakePrice is expected to carry out more aggressive marketing to compete with strong rivals such as Coupang and Timon.

Meanwhile, competition among South Korea’s e-commerce platforms is getting fierce. Coupang, a loss-making e-commerce market backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund, received 2.5 trillion won in investments last November.

WeMakePrice recorded revenue of 4.29 billion won with a net loss of 39 billion won in 2018. The revenue fell by 9.3 percent on-year but its loss narrowed from 41.7 billion won.

According to a survey last month by WiseApp, WeMakePrice was android users’ third favorite shopping app, with 4.5 million users. WeMakePrice came after Coupang with 11.3 million visitors and 11st Street with 6.3 million users.

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)