The Mamma Sends RFP for Organizer Selection... KOSDAQ Listing Process in Full Swing

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] The local mart O2O (Online to Offline) platform company The Mamma has begun procedures for listing on KOSDAQ. It has sent Request for Proposal (RFP) documents to multiple securities firms and plans to finalize the lead manager this month. The goal is to enter the KOSDAQ market next year after raising a 100 billion KRW Series C round in the second half of this year.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 3rd, The Mamma recently sent RFPs to multiple securities firms' IB divisions for its initial public offering (IPO). It plans to finalize the lead manager within this month and aims to list on KOSDAQ next year. A company representative said, "We have held meetings with some securities firms and plan to select the lead manager within this month."

The Mamma, established in 2016, is a distribution IT company operating the neighborhood mart shopping O2O app ‘Mamma Meokja’. It partners with local marts nationwide to provide grocery shopping services through the app. It also operates directly managed marts in major cities. Users can shop for fresh food and other items from nearby marts via the Mamma Meokja app and receive their purchases through same-day delivery. Similar companies include Market Kurly, Coupang Eats, and Oasis.

The company is recently expanding its business scope from food ingredient distribution to hotel accommodation services. The day before, it launched 'ZA', a platform that simultaneously offers lodging reservations and fresh food shopping. It added the mart shopping function to the existing 'Hotel Enjoy' app. It has 1.4 million members. Users can use the app to book accommodations, shop at nearby food ingredient marts, and order delivery from local restaurants.

The Mamma has been growing rapidly since its establishment in 2016. Its sales, which were 1.1 billion KRW in November 2018, jumped to 18.4 billion KRW in 2019 and recorded 66.2 billion KRW last year. In the first half of this year, sales reached 61 billion KRW, a 127% increase compared to the same period last year. Regarding operating profit, the company recorded a loss of 500 million KRW in 2018 but turned profitable with 50 million KRW and 180 million KRW in 2019 and last year, respectively.

The company also plans to raise a Series C round in the second half of this year, targeting 100 billion KRW. The Mamma raised 3.5 billion KRW in Series A funding in 2019 from investors including Simbon Investment Partners, Kingo Investment Partners, AIP Asset Management, and Ascendo Ventures.

Additionally, from the end of last year to early this year, it received Series B investments totaling 15.1 billion KRW from nine investors including the Small and Medium Business Corporation, KB Securities, KB Securities-UTC Investment, IBK Industrial Bank, POSCO Technology Investment, SB Investment, SB Partners, HB Investment, and T Investment. Including seed funding, it has raised approximately 20.3 billion KRW to date.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.