South Korea’s online door-to-door grocery service Market Kurly has raised an additional 35 billion won ($29.4 million) in Series D funding from China’s private equity fund Hillhouse Capital, after bagging 100 billion won from existing investors last month.

The total 135 billion won will be spent on advancing its logistics system, enhancing supply chain and hiring more employees to maintain service quality, said Market Kurly operator Kurly on Friday.

Launched in May 2015, Market Kurly introduced for the first time in the industry the ‘full cold-chain’ system, a temperature-controlled supply chain for fresh food delivery. It has also been providing its signature early morning delivery service that delivers products ordered before 11 p.m. by 7 a.m. of the next day.

Hillhouse Capital, the China’s largest global investment company, made investments in China’s gaming giant Tencent and on-demand food delivery firm Meituan-Dianping, as well as Korean startup Woowa Brothers that operates food delivery app Baedal Minjok.

David Rhee, Partner at Hillhouse Capital, said that Market Kurly has been disrupting the e-commerce market by providing high quality products and unique contents through its unparalleled curation system and full cold-chain infrastructure. He decided to invest in the company on expectations of its huge growth potential given the ballooning sales already generating contribution margin.

“The fundamental competitiveness of Market Kurly that transforms people’s way of life through early morning delivery lies in its incomparable fresh food delivery chain and special contents,” said Sophie Kim, founder and CEO of Market Kurly. “We will make our utmost efforts in maintaining outstanding service quality to provide differentiated customer experiences.”

By Lee Yoo-jin and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]