This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 5:01 p.m. on May 11, 2026.
MADUP, a marketing corporations seeking a KOSDAQ listing, put forward 150 billion won as its listing valuation. It conducted a down round that lowered its valuation to around 160 billion won right before pushing for the listing, and on top of that, it has again revised its corporate value downward. With the goal of "entering the stock market first," investors also set their exit for after the listing.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry and the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 11th, MADUP filed an amended securities registration statement on the 8th, presenting a post-listing market capitalization of up to 149.9 billion won. It plans to list a total of 18,746,800 shares by issuing all 2 million shares as new shares and, with lead manager Mirae Asset Securities, set the desired IPO price range at 7,000–8,000 won per share.
Based on the top end of the desired range, the offering amount is 16 billion won, and from the 20th to the 27th over five trading days it will conduct book-building for institutional investors to finalize the offer price. After that, subscriptions by retail investors will take place from the 1st to the 2nd of next month. If all goes as planned, it will list on the KOSDAQ market in mid-month.
MADUP, which began in 2015, is a performance marketing specialist corporations that tracks and measures marketing outcomes and performance to execute expense. In particular, it established early on an AI digital marketing service that combines marketers' decision-making logic with ad execution data, attracting nearly 35 billion won in cumulative external investment.
What stands out is that MADUP has drastically lowered its listing valuation. In early 2022, when it raised a roughly 15 billion won Series C bridge round, it had already been recognized with a 250 billion won valuation by IMM Investment and others. The listing valuation has effectively shrunk to half of what it was four years ago.
In particular, MADUP's listing valuation is understood to be lower than the down-round corporate value set right before pushing for an initial public offering (IPO). About two months before filing its preliminary listing review with the Korea Exchange (KRX), in Oct. last year the company conducted a 100 million won paid-in capital increase for existing investors. Based on the issue price, the valuation was about 164 billion won.
The analysis is that MADUP made passing the Korea Exchange (KRX) preliminary listing review and entering the market its top priority. During the listing push, MADUP emphasized that it is a technology corporations leveraging data and AI, but it reportedly faced difficulties in gaining recognition for differentiation from existing advertising agencies.
An official in the securities industry said, "The down round in Oct. last year was an effort to obtain financial investors' (FI) consent to push for a listing despite the valuation cut," adding, "FIs that had invested at the earlier 250 billion won valuation saw their per-share investment unit price adjusted to a final 9,816 won after the paid-in capital increase and conversion into common shares."
MADUP plans to list first at a market-friendly valuation and be evaluated by the market. In addition to internalizing AI capabilities from its early days, over roughly 10 years since its founding it has accumulated ad execution data totaling more than 1 trillion won, giving it a unique asset that cannot be replaced by general-purpose AI such as ChatGPT, the company says.
In 2024, MADUP unveiled the AI-based marketing automation solution "LEVER Xpert." Not only does it automatically scrape and consolidate ad performance data scattered by platform (Google, Meta, Naver, Kakao, etc.) into one, but the AI also directly decides where and how much to spend for optimal results.
FIs also agreed with the company's direction and set a post-listing exit policy. All FIs voluntarily committed to lockups. In particular, early-investor FIs such as Stonebridge Ventures agreed to sequentially lift their holdings in three stages—1 month, 3 months and 6 months from the listing date—even though they did not need to set lockup commitments.
Improved performance also led FIs to commit to lockups. MADUP turned to black, shifting from an operating loss of 400 million won in 2024 to an operating profit of 8.5 billion won in 2025. Revenue also rose 43.6%, from 35 billion won to 50.2 billion won. In the first quarter of this year, it continued its profitability, recording 300 million won in operating profit.
An official in the venture capital (VC) industry said, "MADUP has built technology that captures as data each platform's billing system, targeting logic and performance indicators, providing a service that Generative AI cannot deliver," adding, "The more AI technology draws attention, the more MADUP stands to rise—that's the underlying confidence."