South Korea’s e-commerce equivalent of Amazon, Coupang, announced initial public offering (IPO) plans this week. The company is targeting New York with a big aim to become the largest U.S. offering in 2021. Accordingly, Coupang’s success will also contribute to its founder and chief executive’s net worth.
Coupang was first founded in 2010 by Bom Kim. The 42 years old was the Harvard Business School dropout. Having spent a lot of his life in America, Kim built Coupang in South Korea with a business model resembling Groupon. Several changes were made along the way, Kim also followed eBay‘s business model at a time. In the end, Coupang became a marketplace that homes local consumer goods.
Coupang received a warm welcome in the home country, which eventually led the company to international investors’ ears. Coupang managed to pocket nearly $500 million from Sequoia Capital and Blackrock back in 2015. The capital was then allocated to improve deliveries for stay-at-home mothers. Now, Coupang’s same-day delivery service is said to be the fastest among other companies.
Coupang’s service has also seen a significant rise in the middle of the pandemic. According to Forbes, the company net revenues in 2020 jumped 90% from the previous years to nearly $12 billion. However, the company still couldn’t generate profit from its operations. Its prospectus shows a $475 million net loss for the latest year and $700 million in 2019.
Coupang IPO: a big aim to achieve
Coupang is ready for a big catch. The company expects to raise as much as $3.6 billion through the IPO. Forbes noted that Coupang is targeting to price its share for $27 to $30 per share. If everything goes according to plan, the IPO would boost Coupang valuation to around $46 billion to $51 billion. Currently, the figure will name Coupang as the largest U.S. offering to list this year. For comparison, Coupang’s valuation in 2018 reached $9 billion with the boost from Softbank’s Vision Fund $2 billion in funding.
Accordingly, Coupang IPO will further pump its founder and chief executive, Bom Kim’s, net worth up. Kim is currently the biggest shareholder with 10.2% of the whole company’s shares. Once the company debuts on the market, Kim’s net worth could expand to at least $4.7 billion, Forbes predicts.
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