Wadiz Completes Designated Audit and Officially Begins IPO Preparation

16% Sales Increase Last Year, 48% Decrease in Operating Loss
Monthly Profit Achieved in November Last Year, Profit Expected in Q2 This Year
Preparing for IPO by Recruiting Outside Directors

Life design funding platform Wadiz announced that it will pursue an initial public offering (IPO) within this year based on improved performance last year. Wadiz completed a designated audit last year and officially began preparing for listing by recruiting former KDB Capital President Donghyun Koo and Myongji University Business School Professor Jaegu Kim as outside directors.

Wadiz recorded a transaction amount of 237 billion KRW and sales of 39.7 billion KRW last year, representing a 16% increase compared to the previous year. Operating loss decreased by 48% year-on-year to 17.3 billion KRW. Since achieving monthly operating profit in November last year, it is expected to turn to profitability in the second quarter.

The reason for the performance improvement is attributed to the diversification of business models such as funding, store, and advertising. In particular, through the growth of the advertising business and expansion of client transactions last year, sales were qualitatively improved, and marketing costs were reduced by more than 70% while maintaining steady growth.

The number of crowdfunding intermediary projects, the main business model, increased by about 60% year-on-year, and the number of makers also grew by 33%, showing continuous growth. The monthly projects, which were 1,000 at the beginning of last year, have nearly doubled to about 2,000 per month currently. Subsidiaries Wadiz Partners and Wadiz X have achieved concrete results through investments in about 20 next brands (promising startups), contributing to performance improvement this year. Recently, Wadiz Partners was selected as the best operating institution for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ private investment-linked matching loan project (LIPS).

Meanwhile, Wadiz, which expanded and reorganized its categories earlier this year, aims to turn profitable annually by expanding the attraction of domestic and overseas makers and projects. This is expected to strengthen efforts toward pursuing an initial public offering (IPO).