Online to Offline to Investment
On July 26, YAP, an Online to Offline (O2O) platform provider, announced that it has attracted investment worth 42 billion won (US$36 million).
The firm raised 22 billion won (US$18.9 million) of investment from the New World Group, one of the largest companies in Chinese-speaking countries, and another 20 billion won (US$17.2 million) from the Special R&D Zone Fund, which is jointly operated by DS Investment Consulting Group, which successfully invested in the mobile platform industry, Daesung Private Equity, and Smilegate Investment.
On top of that, YAP is reportedly negotiating with the O2O industry and venture capital firms at home and abroad as well, and thus the scale of investment is expected to increase further.
Ahn Kyung-hoon, co-CEO of YAP Global, explained, "The decision of the New World Group, which is a global retailer, and local venture capital firms to invest in our company indicates that YAP has a competitive advantage in the global O2O market with its own O2O business model and technology."