Market Kurly buys company that runs HeyJoyce

Market Kurly, the online grocery delivery service founded by Sophie Kim, is expanding into career building services for women. HeyJoyce, which has 25,000 members, was founded in 2018 and creates content for women wanting to develop their careers.

HeyJoyce website. HeyJoyce provides consulting and online tutorials for women in building up their career. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Market Kurly, the online grocery delivery service founded by Sophie Kim, is expanding into career building services for women.

On Friday, Market Kurly announced it is acquiring Plannery, which runs HeyJoyce, a platform that specializes in women's career building.

The takeover is to be completed by the end of this month.

The founder and CEO of Plannery, Lee Naree, will also be put in charge of Market Kurly's communication office.

HeyJoyce, which has 25,000 members, was founded in 2018 and creates paid content for women wanting to develop their careers.

The platform provides online tutoring as well as consulting for job hunters and people hoping to start their own businesses.

Through HeyJoyce, Market Kurly hopes to more fully engage its female customers.

“We plan to create not only synergy through various collaborations between the two platforms but also strengthen the loyalty of our customers,” said CEO Sophie Kim.

Noting the similarities between HeyJoyce and Market Kurly customers -- women between the ages of 20 and 40 -- Plannery founder Lee said the merging of the two companies will create exceptional customer experiences.

Market Kurly’s founder worked for global investment companies including Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and Singapore’s Temasek before starting her own business in 2014.

Market Kurly was the first online grocery delivery service in Korea to delivered things before dawn.

That concept has been adopted by retail giants Emart and Coupang.

LEE SEUNG-HO, LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]