Shinsegae Venture Capital Signite Partners Invests in Bungaejangter

Investment in 'Bungaejangter' Strengthening Luxury Goods Trading Amid Growing Secondhand Market Interest
Creating Synergy Between Large Corporations and Startups Through Domestic and International Startup Discovery and Investment

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] Shinsegae Group's venture capital (CVC) Signite Partners announced on the 11th that it has invested in Bungaejangter, a preference-based secondhand trading application (app).

This investment was driven by the fact that the secondhand trading market continues to experience high growth, and that Bungaejangter has strengths in luxury goods, sneakers, and golf sectors where secondhand trading is active. Future synergy creation with Shinsegae affiliates was also considered.

According to Hana Financial Management Research Institute, the domestic secondhand trading market size, which was 4 trillion won in 2008, was evaluated at 20 trillion won in 2020, growing more than fivefold in about ten years. Bungaejangter's growth is also steep. Since its launch in 2011, it recorded transaction amounts of 1 trillion won in 2019, 1.3 trillion won in 2020, and surpassed 1.7 trillion won in 2021, showing an annual growth rate of over 30%.

Bungaejangter has recently expanded its business by acquiring the big data specialized startup ‘Boost’, sneaker community ‘Footsell’, secondhand golf equipment trading platform ‘S-Bridge’, secondhand clothing select shop ‘MarketinU’, and the used phone division of Kind Telecom.

Meanwhile, Signite Partners is a venture capital established by Shinsegae Group in July 2020. It was founded to contribute to creating an industrial ecosystem where large corporations and startups coexist and develop, and to secure future growth engines through investments in promising domestic and overseas startups.

So far, it has formed a total of three funds and is managing over 100 billion won, investing in various business areas. Domestically, it has invested in Abley (fashion platform), Huino (digital healthcare), Manna CEA (smart farm), Super Kitchen (fresh food and HMR), and overseas, it invested in ‘Grab’, Southeast Asia's largest vehicle call, delivery, and financial services platform. Going forward, it plans to invest in retail tech, food tech, and digital healthcare related to non-face-to-face services.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.