Cafe24 begins IPO procedures as 1st venture firm under Tesla Policy

Demand forecasting scheduled for Jan 23 to 24, subscriptions for Jan 30 to 31
KOSDAQ listing planned for early February

Global e-commerce platform Cafe24 made an official announcement on December 18 to begin initial public offering procedures.

Beginning early January of next year, Cafe24 will consecutively hold 1:1 meetings with domestic and global institutions, company presentations, as well as conferences for analysts and the press. Cafe24 will carry out demand forecasting for institutional investors to determine its offering price on January 23 to 24, private investor subscriptions on January 30 to 31, and listing on KOSDAQ in early February. The company submitted its financial statements on December 15.

Cafe24 is the first company to be acknowledged for high potential under the Tesla Policy, which allows companies with future growth potential to go public. Especially, Cafe24’s profit model that increases with the vitalization of the e-commerce ecosystem received high value.

Cafe24’s profit model is as follows: (1) Cafe24 lowers entrance barriers and vitalizes entrepreneurship by offering free infrastructure needed to build a DTC store (2) more business volume occurs as more DTCs grow on Cafe24’s platform (3) more payment, advertising, marketing, marketplace, and other e-commerce B2B companies targeting DTC merchants gather on Cafe24’s platform (4) Cafe24 develops more advanced services and new businesses based on gathered big data, which increases expandability and success potential.

A total of 1.16 million DTC stores have been built on Cafe24’s platform and the most successful DTCs include IMVELY, 66 Girls, HOTPING, among many more. Cafe24’s business volume at the end of last year was over approximately 4.7 billion dollars and the annual average is increasing by about 20% each year. The expected business volume this year is over 5.9 billion dollars.

Expectations for 2018 are 30% increase in sales and over three-fold growth in operating profits.

Jaesuk Lee, CEO of Cafe24, said, “In 2018, we are expecting growth in the e-commerce industry and expansion into new business areas to produce 165 million dollars in sales and over 22.9 million dollars in operating profit on the basis of consolidated financial statements.” He added, “Large scale investments for building a global service were wrapped up last year and Cafe24 is expecting to maximize profitability through various platform expansions.”

About Cafe24
Cafe24 is a global success platform that provides a one-stop business environment for e-commerce merchants so that they can achieve continued growth by focusing on their creativity. Cafe24 has established an e-commerce ecosystem with 1.7 million Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) merchants and various global partners in areas like payment, shipping, and marketing. Cafe24 is poised for growth as more DTC brands and e-commerce participants continue to join the burgeoning industry.