이 기사는 2022년 03월 22일 08:06 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Kurly Inc, an operator of the online grocery platform Market Kurly, is smoothing the path to its planned initial public offering (IPO) thanks to a drastic increase in its gross merchandise value (GMV) last year.

Kurly reported revenue of 1.56 trillion won ($1.28 billion) in 2021 on a consolidated basis, up 64% year-on-year, according to industry sources. The company’s operating loss increased by 87% to 217.7 billion won due to huge investments in logistics and higher labor costs, but it seems to have established the infrastructure for further growth.

The most eye-catching part is its GMV, which is one of the metrics used to value e-commerce companies. Kurly’s GMV grew by 65% year-on-year in 2021 to surpass the 2 trillion won threshold for the first time in its history.

Kurly’s GMV increased at a faster pace compared to its bigger rivals including Coupang and SSG.com. Coupang’s GMV grew by 57% to 34 trillion won and SSG.com’s GMV increased by 22% to 5.72 trillion won in the same period.

Kurly has stepped up efforts to increase infrastructure capacity. The firm’s distribution center in Gimpo started operations in March 2021, resulting in a 2.3 times increase in its order processing capacity. This has enhanced its cost efficiency since the second half of last year.

It also expanded its overnight delivery service beyond the Seoul metropolitan area to Chungcheong Province in May, Daegu in July and Busan in December of last year. It is said the number of overnight delivery orders from regions outside the Seoul metropolitan area has surged by 50-60% since the launch of the service.

Kurly also hired 100 more tech employees, upping the number of its technical personnel to 200, or about 20% of the firm’s total office workers of 900.

With the firm’s investment in the infrastructure coming to an end, the profitability is expected to improve from this year.

Kurly is also expected to benefit from the lock-in effect. The company had more than 10 million users as of end of last year, up 43% from a year ago, thanks to first-time users returning for shopping.

In the planned IPO, Kurly is expected to be valued at over 4 trillion won. It raised 250 billion won from a foreign investor in a pre-IPO funding at the end of last year, which gave the company a valuation of nearly 4 trillion won.

Its net loss increased to 1.29 trillion won in 2021 from 222.4 billion won in 2020 as preferred stock issued by the company was recognized as a liability. Kurly explained that the issue has been resolved as all preferred stocks issued at the end of last year were converted to common stock.

“We achieved remarkable growth last year, recording a higher growth rate of GMV compared to competitors,” an official at Kurly said. “We posted an operating loss due to investments, but this will ultimately help drive profitability from this year.” (Reporting by Seon-ho Kim)