Daangn valued at 2.4 tn won after turning profitable

Yonhap News

Daangn, South Korea‘s neighborhood-based marketplace platform, is drawing renewed investor interest after turning profitable, with recent secondary transactions valuing the company in the mid-2 trillion won ($1.38 billion) range.

According to investment banking sources on Thursday, U.S.-based venture capital firm StepStone has acquired part of Daangn’s existing shares. The deal reportedly values the company at around 2.4 trillion won.

Earlier in September, shares held by Kakao Ventures were also sold to an overseas secondary fund, with Daangn’s valuation estimated at roughly 2.5 trillion won at the time. The figures suggest that Daangn has managed to maintain relatively stable enterprise value, even as valuations for many platform startups have shrunk following the liquidity boom of recent years.

Daangn was previously valued at about 3 trillion won when it raised Series D funding in 2021 from investors including Capstone Partners, Kakao Ventures and SoftBank Ventures.

Market observers attribute the resilience largely to improved profitability. Daangn posted a consolidated net profit of 8.4 billion won last year, marking its first return to the black. Cumulative operating profit reached 21.5 billion won, with net profit of 24.6 billion won through the third quarter of this year.

Most of Daangn’s revenue comes from advertising, with particularly strong growth reported in its job-matching service, Daangn Alba, which connects local employers and job seekers.