The company will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the symbol “CPNG”.
The offer exceeds Wall Street’s Bumble IPO, which raised more than $ 2 billion last month. It is also one of the largest recordings ever made by an Asian company on a US stock exchange, according to Dealogic.
Kim will personally value about $ 6 billion once his company goes public, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index.
Coupang is popular for its “missile delivery” service, which promises customers free shipping in a few hours or the next day. But the company has also faced some criticism in South Korea over working conditions, which local media have linked to the deaths of two of its delivery workers.
Coupang previously said it had been notified by South Korean authorities that the death of Jang Deok-jun, who worked at one of his logistics centers, “was considered an occupational disease.”
“We offer our condolences and apologies to Mr Jang. We offer our deepest condolences to his family and will actively seek to support his family,” the company said in a statement last month. “We will put together the reforms we have prepared … and we will do everything possible to create an environment in which workers can work safely,” he added.
Coupang did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday on the second death.
Like many e-commerce companies, Coupang’s business grew during the coronavirus pandemic, as more people stay home and shop online. When the crisis began, the company’s next-day delivery orders rose from just over 2 million to 3.3 million a day.
“We’ve seen an increase in demand in all categories,” Kim told CNN in an April interview.
Coupang lost about $ 475 million in 2020, an improvement on the net loss of $ 699 million in the previous year, according to an SEC filing. But he managed to impress investors.
“Coupang sets a new benchmark for global e-commerce companies in Asia and the United States, and there are a number of key lessons startups can learn from what Coupang has accomplished,” said Goodwater Capital, a venture capital firm in Asia. California that invested in the startup.
The loyalty and dominance of the company’s customers in South Korea suggests that “in a way, [it’s] it even surpasses the Amazon, “the company wrote in a report on Wednesday.
“A lot of things have to do with their innovations in terms of the delivery model,” said Goodwater Capital’s managing partner Eric Kim, a former member of Coupang’s board of directors.
“They have something called delivery at dawn. If you order at midnight, you can get it at 7 in the morning,” he told CNN Business.
Meanwhile, interest in the IPO has flared up. Earlier, the company said it would sell shares for between $ 27 and $ 30 each before taking a walk for $ 32 to $ 34 – and then eventually for $ 35. It also increased the number of shares it intended to offer, from 120 million to 130 million, including some from existing shareholders.
The buzz is coming at a good time for SoftBank, Coupang’s largest shareholder. The Japanese conglomerate has invested at least $ 3 billion in Coupang since 2015, and its Vision Fund owns more than 35% of the company. Its stake is now worth almost $ 20 billion.
While technology stocks have experienced some volatility in recent weeks, they have generally had has been in an incredible race for the last year. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son took over the rally and urged portfolio companies to go public, suggesting it could help his fund lay “golden eggs”.
– CNN’s Selina Wang and Jake Kwon contributed to this report.
