Imweb raises 10 billion won in first outside funding from Altos Ventures

Shopping platform startup Imweb Inc. announced on the 30th that it had closed a Series A funding round worth 10 billion won.

Silicon Valley-based Altos Ventures was the sole investor in the round. The firm is well known in Korea for backing major tech companies including Coupang, Krafton, Woowa Brothers (Baemin), Zigbang, Danggeun Market, and Viva Republica (Toss).

This was Imweb’s first outside investment, which it sought to improve its services and attract top talent. The company reportedly passed on approaches from several investors and chose to work with Altos Ventures.

Imweb provides a solution that lets individuals and small brands easily build websites and online stores without specialized knowledge of development, Photoshop, or coding. Its simple mouse-based tools make it easy to build and operate a site, earning popularity with small businesses and solo sellers who cannot afford developer salaries or expensive outsourcing.

More and more celebrities, including popular YouTubers with over 1 million subscribers, are launching online stores through Imweb. The platform is so easy for sellers to operate and manage that “build your website with Imweb” has become a common rule of thumb. Its customer retention rate approaches 94% one year after sign-up.

As of August this year, Imweb had surpassed 1.3 trillion won in transaction volume for its clients and 340,000 sites created, cementing its position as a leading online store solution. Despite being a late entrant, its strong product has helped it reach second place in the industry by payment gateway application volume in the first half of this year, behind listed company Cafe24. Revenue in 2020 rose 70% from the previous year, reflecting rapid growth.

With this investment, Imweb plans to accelerate efforts to build an ecosystem for small businesses and significantly expand its workforce. It is following a path similar to Shopify, which began as a website-building platform for individuals and grew into a global e-commerce company competing with Amazon.

In the near term, Imweb plans to strengthen its market position by upgrading its e-commerce services, including integrating merchants’ sales channels and improving the buyer experience. It is also seeking to expand its market through Imweb Ad, an automated marketing service for small businesses launched early this year, and Imweb Taiwan, launched in 2020.

Hee-eun Park, a partner at Altos Ventures who led the investment, said, "The number of small sellers offering unique brands and high-quality products is growing, and demand for online sales has surged amid the pandemic. Yet existing website solutions remain difficult to use. Imweb’s solid product was already spreading quickly by word of mouth among sellers, and we decided to invest because we believe it can become a reliable partner for small businesses."

Lee Soo-mo, CEO of Imweb, said, "With this investment, we will actively recruit top talent and become a standout company that helps small businesses establish themselves online. Building on our strong position in Korea, we will become a trusted partner that helps sellers expand globally."