Kakao Mobility gets additional $125 mn investment from TPG, Carlyle

2021.06.10 10:36:06 | 2021.06.10 15:42:51

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Korean transportation app operator Kakao Mobility Corp. received additional $125 million investment from global private equity giants TPG and Carlyle Group, bumping up its pre-IPO funding to over $800 million.

Both have put up extra on top of their earlier investment, parent Kakao Corp. said on Wednesday.

TPG consortium is investing additional 130.7 billion won ($117.3 million) in Kakao Mobility after its first investment of 500 billion won made in 2017. Carlyle Group through Carlyle Asia Partners V is injecting 9.2 billion won, an addition to its 220 billion won investment made four months ago.

Outside funding has come to 920 billion won, the largest for a mobility platform in the country.

Kakao Mobility runs Korea¡¯s most popular taxi-hailing service linked to Kakao Talk, a chat app almost all Koreans use. It has been aggressively adding more transportation related services such as auto maintenance and in-town parcel delivery.

On Thursday, shares of parent Kakao closed 3.5 percent higher at 133,500 won. Kakao Mobility is not listed. It plans to go public next year.

By Oh Dae-seok and Cho Jeehyun

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