[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Sangjin] Kakao Enterprise is set to conduct a capital increase of up to 300 billion KRW to bolster its cloud business capabilities.
Founded in 2019, Kakao Enterprise is an AI-based platform and solutions development company. Following a restructuring last year due to poor performance, Kakao Enterprise reorganized earlier this year, spinning off its IT solutions division, including Kakao Work, to focus on its cloud business.
However, Kakao Enterprise has been struggling with persistent losses. The company reported operating losses of 36.8 billion KRW in 2020, 90.1 billion KRW in 2021, 140.5 billion KRW in 2022, and 127.3 billion KRW in 2023. Over the past four years, the accumulated operating loss totals 394.7 billion KRW. Kakao Enterprise received a 100 billion KRW investment from KDB Industrial Bank in 2021 and borrowed 100 billion KRW from its parent company, Kakao, in July last year.
Despite these efforts, losses continued, leaving the company with a negative net worth of -88.4 billion KRW by the end of 2023. The planned equity offering is expected to bolster the company's capital and support the expansion of its cloud business.
AlphaBIZ Kim SangJin(letyou@alphabiz.co.kr)
