This article was published on Jan. 15, 2025, at 4:17 p.m. on the CHOSUNBIZ MoneyMove site.
HeyDealer, one of the major used car sales platforms in the country, will begin preparations for its initial public offering (IPO). Following the recent hiring of a chief financial officer (CFO), the company plans to select an underwriter for the listing soon.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 15th, PR&D Company, which operates HeyDealer, is expected to send a request for proposal (RFP) to major securities firms soon to determine an underwriter within the year.
PR&D Company is a startup founded by CEO Park Jin-woo during his time at Seoul National University. It operates the used car sales service platform HeyDealer. HeyDealer began services in October 2014, and by June 2023, its cumulative transaction amount exceeded 10 trillion won, and by September of the same year, cumulative downloads surpassed 10 million. The company is expanding its position in the used car sales market by launching new services such as the 'Thru' service, which discloses the used car technical diagnosis process, and other functions like 'Finding Hidden History of Used Cars' and 'My Car Fraud.'
PR&D Company has raised a total of 1 billion won in seed funding since October 2015, followed by 5 billion won in Series A funding in 2016, 30 billion won in Series B funding in 2019, 40 billion won in Series C funding in 2021, and 45 billion won in Series D funding in 2024.
PR&D Company is reported to be expecting a corporate value in the range of 1 trillion won. This is due to the corporate value reaching 500 billion won during the last investment round. It is said that the company will apply for preliminary listing review next year, considering the performance of its new services.
PR&D Company recently hired a CFO ahead of its serious push for listing. The new CFO, Park Hyung-geun, previously worked at AI company Daible.