The South Korean all-in-one lifestyle platform startup, Bucketplace, has raised a $182 million Series D round to bring augmented reality features to its home improvement app, OHouse.
The company plans to use the funding to accelerate its growth in South Korea and bring its products to new markets, such as Japan, Southeast Asia, and the US. Bucketplace will also invest in new talent, including tech specialists, to build augmented reality features for its platform to enable consumers to visualize products within their homes.
The platform was first launched in 2016, enabling interior designers and home improvement hobbyists to share pictures of their refurbished homes and their remodeling experiences. Users could also go through a wide selection of posts to purchase items they liked directly from the app. Now, the company has expanded its scope of services to almost everything involved in the residential space.
There is no release confirmation on OHouse’s AR feature yet. According to the company, the feature would require users to upload photos of their homes to place and see how a piece of furniture would look within the space. They can then just click on the item and redirect to the seller’s website to conclude the purchase.
The startup’s platform is experiencing immense growth, with over 10 million visitors across the app and website. Bucketplace also revealed that OHouse had been downloaded more than 20 million times in South Korea.
The official valuation of the company wasn’t disclosed with the announcement. However, experts estimate the Series D round to put Bucketplace at a post-money valuation of around $1.4 billion (2 trillion KRW). The latest round brings the total funding raised to date to about $261 million, nearly doubling the company’s valuation. It had previously raised $70 million in November 2020, at a valuation of approximately $890 million.
SoftBank Ventures Asia, Singapore’s Vertex Growth, a VC backed by sovereign wealth fund Temasek, Bond Capital, BRV Capital Management, Korea Development Bank, IMM Investment, and Mirae Asset Capital participated in the Series D round.
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