Backpackr Inc, which operates the popular Korean handmade market platform ‘Idus,’ has attracted 20 billion won ($16 million) Series C investment from domestic and foreign venture capital and institutions.
Global investors such as Singapore-based Axiom Asia Private Capital and Vanderbilt University (Office of Investments), as well as existing shareholders such as Altos Ventures and Stone Bridge Ventures, participated in the investment. Due to its unrivaled growth, Idus’ corporate value was recognized as higher than at the time of attracting investment in 2020.
Through this, starting from the first half of next year, Backpackr will invest intensively in the sequential expansion of Idus to overseas markets such as Southeast Asia, Japan, and the United States. It will also expand its crowdfunding platform business, Tumblbug, by hiring more human resources, advancing services, and improving the environment for writers and creators.
Idus will finish its eighth year in operation this year, and the company has been achieving monthly earnings exceeding the break-even point (BEP) since July of last year. Through this investment, the cumulative transaction amount of Idus and Tumblbug has surpassed 1 trillion won, and the number of handmade writers and creators active on both platforms is also recording 35,000 and 26,000.
Last month, Backpackr announced ‘Everyday Special’ as a vision for the creator ecosystem. The company plans to build a creator ecosystem that realizes the organic activities of writers and creators through mutual complementarity and cooperation among platforms such as handmade market ‘Idus,’ crowdfunding platform ‘Tumblbug,’ and creator regular membership support service ‘Stadio’ to be.
Backpacker CEO Kim Dong-hwan said, “We will build a creator ecosystem based on our market competitiveness, and creators will provide customers with the emotional value of ‘special in the world.’ We will focus on building a solid foundation and becoming competitive globally.”
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