SK Square, Next Is AgTech... 35 Billion Investment in Pre-Unicorn 'Greenlabs'

Annual Sales of 100 Billion KRW This Year... Cumulative Investment Attraction of 40 Billion KRW

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] SK Square is expanding its investment portfolio to include Ag-tech (Ag-tech, a compound word of agriculture and technology) companies following blockchain and metaverse.

SK Square announced on the 27th that it invested about 35 billion KRW in Greenlabs, the largest agricultural innovation company in Korea.

Founded in 2017, Greenlabs is an Ag-tech company with an estimated sales revenue of about 100 billion KRW this year. With cumulative investment funding reaching 40 billion KRW, it has been recognized by the government for its business performance and technological capabilities, winning the ‘2020 National Brand Smart Farm Award’ and being selected as a ‘Hi Seoul’ brand. Recently, it has expanded its business scale by acquiring livestock smart farm company Realfarm and agricultural ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) companies Woosung Soft and Asan Soft.

Greenlabs operates the one-stop service ‘Farm Morning’ application (app), managing agricultural startups, crop cultivation consulting, and fresh market businesses. Farmers can ▲receive data-based online management consulting when they wish to start a business, ▲increase crop productivity through various information and services necessary for crop cultivation, and ▲sell agricultural products with higher margins than the existing distribution structure.

Greenlabs is also on the verge of becoming a unicorn (a private company valued at over 1 billion USD). Its expected sales revenue for this year and next year are 106 billion KRW and 485 billion KRW respectively, forecasting 4 to 5 times high growth. The number of Farm Morning app subscribers, currently used by more than 450,000 farmers, which is over half of domestic farms, is also expected to increase to 1 million by 2022, according to the company.

SK Square views the growth potential of the global Ag-tech sector highly. According to global market research firm CB Insights, the global investment scale in the Ag-tech sector reached about 6.2 billion USD (approximately 7 trillion KRW) as of 2020 and is growing rapidly every year.

With this investment, SK Square plans to contribute to the digitalization of Korean agriculture while making proactive investments in leading platform companies in line with SK Square’s goal of being an ‘active portfolio management company.’ They also expect investment returns that exceed market expectations.

Business synergy between Greenlabs and SK Group is also anticipated. In the agricultural product distribution sector, collaboration with 11st Fresh Market is possible. Additionally, Greenlabs operates ‘Farm Morning Carbon,’ a service where farms practicing carbon farming sell carbon emission credits to companies, and SK, which practices carbon-neutral management, could consider an ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) cooperation model for the carbon emission credit business.

Ryu Byung-hoon, Managing Director (MD) of SK Square, said, “This is an innovative investment that contributes to society through the digitalization of agriculture while achieving financial results,” adding, “We will help the growth of promising ventures and startups to enhance Square’s corporate value.”

Shin Sang-hoon, CEO of Greenlabs, emphasized, “Greenlabs is expanding the value chain of sustainable agriculture through the digital transformation of domestic agriculture,” and added, “We will strengthen research and development in data agriculture, expand mergers and acquisitions, and focus on overseas market expansion with this investment.”

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