이 기사는 2021년 03월 17일 08시06분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Praxis Capital plans to invest in South Korea’s largest meal kit company Fresheasy, hoping to create synergy with its existing portfolio companies.

The private equity (PE) firm will inject 250 billion won ($220 million) to 300 billion won of new capital into Fresheasy, which will make it the largest shareholder in the company. The investment will be partly financed through the firm's blind-pool fund, Praxis Value Creation Fund II, which was closed at 490 billion won in 2020.

Praxis Capital has targeted companies in the home meal replacement (HMR) sector to capitalize on the market’s high growth potential. The South Korean HMR market has grown at an annual growth rate of nearly 20% in recent years, and is expected to grow to 7 trillion won by 2022 from 4 trillion won in 2020.

Founded in 2016, Fresheasy is the largest meal kit company in the country with a market share of 70%. Its revenue has grown exponentially in recent years, increasing to 71.1 billion won in 2019 from 21.8 billion won in 2018. Its 2020 revenue is believed to have more than doubled year-on-year.

Fresheasy has raised more than 100 billion won to date through three rounds of fundraising since 2018. It received 30 billion won from Hana Financial Investment Private Equity and GS Home Shopping in early 2019.

In 2019, the company also raised 50 billion won from nine investors including SoftBank Ventures Asia, NAU IB Capital, NongHyup Bank, NH Investment & Securities, SBI Investment, Union Investment Partners, Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Investment & Securities and GS Home Shopping in a funding round that valued the company at around 160 billion won. The proceeds were used to build a new plant in Yongin, Gyeonggi province. (Reporting by Si-eun Park)