Funds managed by KKR are to lead a $190m Series C fundraising round in MUSINSA, one of Korea’s leading online fashion marketplaces, with participation from independent investment management firm Wellington Management.
Founded in 2001 as an online leisure shoe community, MUSINSA today features more than 8,000 local and foreign designer brands, as well as an in-house brand (musinsa standard).
This transaction marks KKR’s first technology growth investment in Korea as part of its Asia Next Generation Technology (NGT) strategy, which seeks to support the growth of innovative, disruptive companies in Asia Pacific across key themes, including software, consumer technology and FinTech.
This Series C follows MUSINA’s Series B round in 2021 and KRW100bn Series A round in 2019.
Other investments from KKR’s Asia NGT strategy include Lenskart, an omni-channel eyewear retailer in India; Advanced Navigation, a developer of AI-powered robotics and navigation technology in Australia; Privy, a digital identity provider in Indonesia; GrowSari, a business-to-business e-commerce platform serving small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines; KiotViet, a software platform for SMEs in Vietnam; and NetStars, the operator of Japan’s largest QR code payment gateway.
