Naver secures largest stake in Spain's online marketplace Wallapop

Naver Corp. has made a massive additional investment in Wallapop, Spain's online market for used items and Europe's equivalent to Korea's Danggeun Market, to become the site's de facto largest shareholder.

The Spanish media outlet La Informacion said Naver indirectly raised its investment stake in Wallapop through an additional injection in the K-Fund of Korelya Capital, a European venture capital company led by former French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin. In 2021, Naver invested €115 million, or 155 billion won, in the fund and this time put in €75 million, or 100 billion won.

Thus Naver's indirect stake in Wallapop is reported to have jumped from the 10% range to around 30%.

On Dec. 6, the company also concluded a $1.3 billion contract to buy Poshmark, a used trading platform based in San Francisco, saying it can use the data used in the process of customer-to-customer transactions to expand Naver's business lines.

Write to Sang-Eun Lee at selee@hankyung.com