Many companies within South Korea’s Software Industry are looking to go public as the country is going through digital transformation that has started to receive attention since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the industry on Tuesday, major data and cloud computing service providers from South Korea such as Metabuild, B2EN, and Crossent have been preparing to go public.
Metabuild has selected Hana Securities as the company that will oversee its IPO (initial public offering) process and has been making necessary preparation in order to go public next year.
Metabuild was established 20 years ago. It has been seeing its sales grow since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic by carrying out various businesses related to the Digital New Deal. It made more than $18 million (20 billion KRW) in sales last year and is looking to make $45 million (50 billion KRW) this year. It has created a solid foundation for growth by expanding its business towards middleware, smart city platform, and MyData. Its sales are expected to increase from many different fields as it has been and is preparing to provide its solutions for major South Korean projects this year.
“We plan to establish a stable income structure and strengthen our personnel this year in order to establish a strong foundation for growth.” said CEO Cho Poong-yeon of Metabuild. “If we go public next year according to our plan, we plan to create a structure where talented individuals continue to join our company by improving our work environment and strengthening our R&D capability.”
B2EN completed auditor appointment through South Korea’s SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) listing track and requested a preliminary examination. Once it is informed by the exchange that it passed the examination, it will carry out follow-up IPO process. It is expected to go public at the end of October at the earliest.
The company also saw its sales grow last year by continuing to push for data businesses related to the Digital New Deal. It was recognized of its abilities by obtaining a project related to data dam and another project related to data construction for AI learning. It also secured a stable source for sales and profit as its data quality management solution started to gain interests.
“We plan to make more investments and continue to put in efforts for continuous growth if the IPO process goes smoothly.” said CEO Cho Kwang-won of B2EN. “As data continues to receive attention globally, we want to become a role model for other data companies that are looking to go public.”
Crossent has selected KB Securities as the company that will oversee its IPO process and it has been preparing to go public. It plans to attract investments by the end of this year before it goes public. After making $15 million (17 billion KRW) in sales last year, the company is looking to make anywhere between $23 million (25 billion KRW) and $27 million (30 billion KRW) in sales this year. The company believes that it will be able to achieve its goal as many projects related to VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) are scheduled in the second half this year.
“As we have established a strong portfolio related to VDI solution, we believe that we will be able to obtain major VDI projects from the financial and public sectors in the second half.” said CEO Jeon Hyung-cheol of Crossent. “We plan to expand our business in the second half by attracting investments and hire talented individuals in order to increase our sales.”
As digital transformation has been actively taking place in both the public and private sectors since last year, level of interest towards software companies has risen greatly.
A representative from the industry said that there have been many data and cloud computing service providers that have been receiving investments or offer for IPO and that many of these companies have begun to make investments and go public as software companies that have recently become public are continuing to make growth.
Staff Reporter Kim, Jiseon | river@etnews.com