[단독] A food tech startup favored by large corporations was sold for just 500 million won.

2024-04-04 09:01:00
Plating Corporation.

Plating Corporation, a food tech startup that attracted attention with its restaurant ideas such as ‘Chef’s Visiting Cafeteria’ and attracted investment from CJ Group, is being sold at a low price. It appears that they had no choice but to receive a low price as the company had entered a rehabilitation process due to management difficulties.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 4th, Plating Corporation recently signed an investment contract for corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) with the ‘Food Tech Corporate Structure Innovation Investment Association’. The general partner (GP) of the investment association is Goorum Investment, a domestic private equity fund (PEF) management company.

Plating Corporation has so far attracted more than 9 billion won in funds from domestic strategic investors (SI) and venture capital (VC). However, it was confirmed that this transaction was made for 540 million won. The paid-in capital increase through third-party allocation involves the issuance of all new shares without the sale of old shares. The issuance price per common stock is 100 won, and Cloud Investment will secure a total of 5.4 million shares.

Plating Corporation is a startup founded in 2018 with the slogan ‘Chef’s go-to cafeteria’. We provided a corporate breakfast and lunch subscription service. Meals were prepared by a team of dedicated chefs from luxury hotels or Michelin restaurants and served differently each day. With the introduction of the smart factory solution, logistics distribution and collection taking into account delivery time and movement routes have been achieved in one stop.

Plating Corporation attracted CJ Group as an investor and made its name known as a ‘rising startup.’ CJ declared a new vision of ‘Food Business Partner’ at the end of 2021 through CJ Freshway and CJ Investment and invested in Plating Corporation. At the time, it also attracted investment from CJ Group, Mesh Korea, Strong Ventures, and Future Play.

Afterwards, in June 2023, Philosophia Ventures, Tail, and Korea Alternative Investment Management were recruited as new investors and attracted 3.2 billion won. However, just five months following receiving the Series A investment, the company began rehabilitation procedures. It is reported that due to the nature of the F&B (food and beverage) business, it is difficult to manage the cost ratio and is facing management difficulties. In 2022, Plating Corporation posted sales of 5.7 billion won, but cost of sales recorded 5.1 billion won. With the cost of sales ratio approaching 90%, it was essentially a business with nothing left over.

With this transaction, a red light has been turned on for the recovery of investment funds from existing investors. In the corporate rehabilitation process, a repayment plan is established focusing on creditors, and redeemable convertible preferred stock (RCPS) held by investors is treated as stocks, not bonds. Accordingly, all existing investors’ shares (8,895,829 shares) will be burned free of charge. An industry official explained, “Due to the nature of the corporate rehabilitation process, it is unlikely that profit dividends will be distributed to shareholders until the rehabilitation process is completed.”

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