Frip Secures 8 Billion KRW Series B Bridge Investment

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Frontrip, the operator of the hobby leisure platform 'Frip', announced on the 27th that it has recently secured an additional investment of 8 billion KRW from five investors.

This investment is a bridge investment following the previous Series B round, with participation from Kyobo Securities CVC, Magna-Axis Investment, NICE Investment Partners, SJ Investment Partners, and K-Bridge Investment. Notably, existing shareholder NICE Investment Partners made a follow-up investment. The total cumulative investment raised by Frip to date amounts to 18 billion KRW.

Frip is a host-based hobby leisure platform offering various leisure activities including ▲outdoor ▲sports ▲one-day classes ▲travel products ▲gatherings. Despite the contraction of offline activities due to COVID-19, it has steadily grown, recording 1.2 million cumulative members and 17,000 cumulative hosts as of April 2022.

In particular, it has been highly evaluated that hobby leisure and lifestyle data of the 2030 generation, which accounts for 92% of all members, is steadily accumulating. This generation forms communities on Frip by sharing their tastes and interests with high repurchase rates and brand loyalty. Rather than simple travel products, Frip is recognized for pioneering trends in the domestic leisure market by producing unique products based on the individual characteristics and experiences of hosts. Recently, Frip also halved platform fees to strengthen partnerships with hosts, who are the main suppliers of products.

Frip plans to use the investment funds for service development, hiring key personnel, promotion, and marketing. Especially, with the endemic phase of COVID-19, it expects explosive demand for offline-centered hobby leisure activities and plans to actively expand services as an interest-based community platform.

Shin Heejin, Director of the VC Business Division at Kyobo Securities, who participated in this investment, stated, “We decided to participate in this investment because we believe Frip has high growth potential as a dual-sided platform based on interests.”

Lim Suyeol, CEO of Frip, said, “The future hobby leisure market will shift to an interest-based model reflecting the special tastes and lifestyles of the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z). Based on this investment, we will boldly expand and advance our services and recruit key personnel to grow into a company leading the trends in domestic hobby leisure.”

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