STIC invests $20 mn in e-commerce giant Tiki

South Korean private equity firm STIC Investments Inc. has invested $20 million in Vietnam’s e-commerce giant Tiki Corporation’s series E funding round, which raise a total of $258 million. STIC made the investment through STIC Global Innovation Growth Fund, which held the first closing at 414.5 billion won in May and will make the final closing at 481.5 billion won ($407.5 million) within this month, an official from STIC told The Korea Economic Daily.

The Korean firm said itself and some Korean limited partners have invested an aggregate of $68 million into the round, including $30 million from Mirae Asset Group affiliates such as Mirae Asset Securities Co. and Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund and $180 million from Yuanta Investment Co. under Yuanta Securities Korea. 

According to Tiki, other investors include Hong Kong-based insurance giant AIA Insurance Inc. committing $258 million to the Vietnamese company, UBS AG London branch, Taiwan Mobile Co. and AppWorks.

In the meantime, STIC has led partnerships between Tiki and Korean cosmetics-focused e-commerce company Silicon2. The Korean e-commerce platform will provide more than 6,000 beauty products to Tiki through the partnership, STIC said. 

Founded in 2010 as a book delivery platform, Tiki currently offers around 10 million products and receives 2.2 million monthly visitors to its website as of October. The company’s chief executive Son Tran Ngoc Thai said the series E funding brings the company’s valuation to nearly $1 billion. The online platform aims at a US IPO in 2022 or 2023. 

Write to Jun-Ho Cha at chacha@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.