The Mamma Selected as Participant in Cheonan City Cultural Content Project

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] TheMamma announced on the 12th that it has been selected as a participant in the ‘2021 Cultural City Cultural Content Development and Support Project’ hosted by the Chungnam Information & Culture Industry Promotion Agency and Cheonan City.

The organizers planned this project to develop urban cultural content that can be fused with culture, arts, and genres by utilizing Cheonan City's cultural resources.

TheMamma qualified to participate by applying under the name of Mamma Mart Cheonan Branch, a directly managed mart located in Cheonan City. Mamma Mart Cheonan Branch is a food material mart with an area of about 3,000 pyeong located in Ssangyong-dong, Cheonan City, Chungnam Province, which opened in March.

Selected as a participant, TheMamma will receive a project fund of 5 million KRW to produce virtual reality (VR) content promoting campus attractions in Cheonan City by the end of next month. The target campuses have been tentatively decided as four locations: Nasaret University, Sangmyung University, Yeonam University, and Namseoul University. The 360-degree VR content will focus on attractions near these campuses and revitalizing the local commercial districts.

The content production will be handled by TheMamma Media Headquarters. The Media Headquarters is currently preparing a live commerce business for local specialties. They are planning various channels to collaborate with small business owners and introduce high-quality fresh food products to consumers. Director Hyun Byungsoo, a comedian from SBS’s 8th public recruitment, is in charge of the Media Headquarters.

If TheMamma receives a high score for this first phase deliverable, it will gain eligibility to participate in additional cultural content support projects. A company official stated, “Promoting major campus attractions in Cheonan through VR is expected to greatly contribute to Cheonan City’s tourism business and the revitalization of local commercial districts,” adding, “We will continue activities that contribute to local communities where our directly managed stores, such as Mamma Mart Cheonan Branch, are located.”

Founded in 2016, TheMamma is a distribution IT company operating the neighborhood mart shopping O2O app ‘Mamma Meokja’. It has franchised with local marts nationwide and provides food material shopping services through the app. It also operates directly managed marts in major cities. Users can shop for fresh food and other items from nearby marts via the Mamma Meokja app and receive their purchases through same-day delivery.

So far, TheMamma has attracted a cumulative investment of 20.3 billion KRW. In July last year, it was selected as a preliminary unicorn by the Small and Medium Business Corporation and received a total of 7.2 billion KRW in funding. It aims to raise a Series C investment worth 100 billion KRW in the second half of this year. By improving performance and valuation, it plans to pursue a KOSDAQ initial public offering (IPO) next year.