CJ Group, a leading Korean conglomerate, announced last year to work towards digital transformation aggressively. Now its food distributor and food service subsidiary CJ Freshway has entered a strategic investment contract worth 40.3 billion won ($31.3 million) with Marketboro, a Korean B2B food material distribution startup.
Marketboro operates B2B food material distribution SaaS’ Marketbom’ and food material direct trade open market ‘Sikbom.’ Last year, the company recorded about 630 billion won ($490 million) in gross transaction value (GMV), with a CAGR of 80% for the past three years (2019-2021).
‘Marketbom’ is the No. 1 food material distribution SaaS in Korea, and the accumulated transaction amount has exceeded 2 trillion won ($1.5 billion) by June of this year. Marketboro is currently promoting establishing a B2B distribution big data center and introducing AI (artificial intelligence) food material purchase optimization service.
Companies to collaborate for technological development
Based on Marketboro’s IT technology, CJ Freshway will establish a data joint management system to develop solutions optimized for customer business environments. An official from CJ Freshway said, “The decision to invest in Marketboro is a key driving force for strengthening the customer-tailored solution business.’
Im Sa-seong, CEO of Marketboro, said, “Through this investment, Marketboro will develop services for the digital transformation of the food material distribution market, data-based demand forecasting, and AI that can perform appropriate transaction volume and expected cost, contract production, and contract distribution. We now focus more on technology development with this investment as an opportunity. We expect that we will be able to create stronger synergies with CJ Freshway, the No. 1 company in the industry.”
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