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Woowa Brothers Corp, which owns the "Baedal Minjok" food
delivery service, said the cash will help drive expansion to
overseas markets, and the development of autonomous robots.
The investment was led by Hillhouse Capital, which had already
invested 57 billion won ($50.7 million) in the firm in 2016,
with equity participation by U.S.-based Sequoia Capital and
Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, Woowa Brothers said.
Launched in 2010, Baedal Minjok's monthly orders grew from about
5 million in early 2015 to more than 20 million by July 2018,
the company said.
Woowa Brothers also expanded to offer delivery from restaurants
that did not previously deliver, and a service for providing
food and supplies to restaurants.
Goldman Sachs invested 40 billion won ($35.6 million) in Woowa
Brothers in 2014.
Hillhouse Capital is an investor in top Chinese technology firms
including Tencent and Baidu, while Sequoia Capital was an early
investor in global tech behemoths like Google Inc and Apple Inc.
Rigid regulations, strong labor unions and a risk-averse culture
among South Korea's giant family-run conglomerates, or chaebol,
have hindered the growth of start-ups in Asia's fourth-largest
economy.
But international investors have been drawn to companies making
inroads in the market for fast delivery services in South Korea.
In November SoftBank's Vision Fund said it was investing an
additional $2 billion in South Korea's top e-commerce firm
Coupang.
(Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Jan Harvey)
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