KIC Alumni CEO Shin Hosik's Leadership, AgTech 'Smooth Sailing'
Recorded 117.8 Billion KRW in Sales Last Year, Dual Wings of Fulfillment and Solutions
Agritech unicorn (a private company valued at over 1 trillion KRW) ‘Tridge’ is accelerating its initial public offering (IPO). Especially as it gains recognition in the global market, it has planned listings both domestically and overseas.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 26th, Tridge is pushing for an IPO within this year. Both the domestic and U.S. markets are under consideration. Despite the ongoing market downturn and a frozen IPO market, Tridge’s announcement has attracted significant attention.
Tridge was founded in 2014 by CEO Shin Hosik, who was in charge of global trading and investment at Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) and Deutsche Bank. From the beginning, the company targeted the global market. It focused on developing a platform for digital transformation (DT) in agriculture without cash burning (intentional cutthroat competition).
SoftBank Ventures, a venture capital (VC) firm that recognized Tridge’s growth potential, participated in the Series A investment round in 2016, investing 3 billion KRW. Subsequently, it invested an additional 500 million KRW in 2018. Forest Partners also played a catalytic role by betting 3 billion KRW. Additionally, U.S. financial firm Activant Capital invested about 2.2 billion KRW around the same time. At that time, Tridge was valued at 150 billion KRW. Later, existing shareholder Forest Partners made a follow-on investment. In 2021, they invested once more, injecting 70 billion KRW. Through this process, Tridge’s valuation significantly increased to 600 billion KRW.
The ‘love calls’ from venture capital continued. In August last year, DS Asset Management invested 50 billion KRW. As a result, Tridge’s valuation soared to 3.6 trillion KRW. This represents a 24-fold increase compared to Forest Partners’ initial investment. In a relatively short period, Tridge joined the ranks of unicorns.
Tridge recorded consolidated sales of 114.1 billion KRW last year. This figure does not include sales generated from over 40 countries overseas. Notably, the expansion of the fulfillment business segment contributed to a 330.3% increase compared to the previous year. Tridge’s business segments are broadly composed of three parts: revenue centers ▲Fulfillment ▲Growth Solutions, and a cost center ▲Data & Intelligence.
Through fulfillment, Tridge provides market data and application intelligence, while accumulating market stakeholder data via its platform, thereby driving sales growth and continuously strengthening its core competitiveness in data intelligence. Starting this year, based on past achievements, Tridge plans to fully commercialize Growth Solutions sales, aiming for substantial external growth accompanied by significant profitability improvements.
As Tridge moves toward listing backed by solid sales, financial investors (FIs) are focusing on exit (investment recovery) outcomes. If Tridge receives a valuation higher than the 3.6 trillion KRW recognized during its Series D last year, early investors are expected to see double-digit multiples on their principal investment.
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