Daangn
Unicorn · $2.7BSeoul, KR · 5 known investors
Daangn is a community-based mobile marketplace and social platform that connects neighbors for buying, selling, sharing, and helping each other in local communities across South Korea.
Also known as Daangn Market · Daangn Market Inc. · Karrot · 당근 · 당근마켓
Founders & leadership
Investors · 5
Also in the syndicate · 1
Valuation · disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed — follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Daangn (also known as Daangn Market and internationally as Karrot) is a South Korean hyper-local community marketplace. Its mobile app and website let users in a verified neighborhood buy and sell second-hand goods directly with one another, with location-based verification restricting trades and content to a user's immediate area.
Beyond peer-to-peer used-goods trading, the platform has expanded into a set of adjacent neighborhood services accessible from its main site: local business discovery (동네업체), used cars, a neighborhood community feed (동네생활), interest-based groups and meetups (모임), part-time jobs and tutoring/lessons, real estate listings, and local cafés. Category activity on the site spans consumer electronics, appliances, furniture and housing, alongside community posts on topics such as pets, local shops and neighborhood questions.
The company also maintains public engineering resources, including an open-source monorepo (daangn/websites) that hosts the source for its shared corporate web properties, among them its about, investor-relations and international careers sites.
Business model
Daangn operates a business-to-consumer marketplace platform. Consumer use of peer-to-peer second-hand trading is free, with monetization described as coming from local advertising and related commercial services; its customer profile has been characterized as combining freemium, subscription and marketplace-commission elements alongside adjacent offerings such as Daangn Pay, local business listings, jobs and real estate.
Monetization is associated with local advertising, local business and commerce services, digital payments (Daangn Pay), real estate escrow and recruitment-related offerings, layered on a free consumer second-hand trading marketplace.
Traction
Reported employee headcount of 588, with open roles rising to over 10,000 in 2026 tracking data. The company is listed among Seoul's unicorns, with total funding raised estimated at about $201.9 million and an estimated valuation of $2.7 billion. Its public websites repository has approximately 678 stars and 63 forks.
Latest developments
A strategic funding transaction was dated December 18, 2025. Firmographic tracking in 2026 reported a large expansion in open roles, and the company continues to maintain and publish its shared website codebase, which includes an investor-relations site.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Daangn is characterized as a leading hyper-local community marketplace in South Korea and was listed among the nine unicorns produced by the Seoul startup ecosystem in the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2022. Comparable companies cited include Korean second-hand marketplaces Joonggonara and Bungaejangter as well as eBay.
The platform combines location-based verification with a neighborhood-scoped community feed, so listings, discussions and services are limited to a user's immediate local area rather than a national marketplace, and layers local business discovery, jobs, real estate and payments onto second-hand trading.
Technology
The service uses GPS/location-based neighborhood verification to scope transactions and content to a user's local area, and applies AI-assisted listing features within the app. The company publishes an open-source TypeScript monorepo for its shared corporate websites.
Go-to-market
The service is distributed as a consumer mobile app and website, with users onboarded into a verified neighborhood; growth is driven by local network effects around second-hand trading, which then funnels users into community, jobs, real estate and local business features.
Consumers within a verified local neighborhood who buy and sell used goods, seek local jobs, housing or services, and participate in community discussion, plus local small businesses seeking neighborhood customers.
Geography
Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, with the core service operating across Korean neighborhoods. The company maintains separate international careers websites for Canada, Japan and an English-language site under the Karrot Market brand.
History
The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Seoul. It raised successive venture rounds beginning with a Series A in December 2016, followed by Series B (April 2018), Series C (September 2019) and a Series D announced in August 2021 in which it received KRW 178.9 billion led by DST Global at a post-money valuation of $2.7 billion. A further strategic transaction was dated December 2025. By 2022 it was identified among the unicorns produced by the Seoul startup ecosystem.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 1
launches, deals, and filingsDaangn Market Inc. closed a transaction in which it received KRW 178.9 billion, led by new investor DST Global with participation from Reverent Partners Co., Ltd., at a stated post-money valuation of $2.7 billion (KRW 2,981.6667 billion).
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Daangndaangn.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Daangn do?
- Daangn (Karrot) runs a South Korean hyper-local app for neighborhood second-hand trading, community, jobs and local services.
- Who founded Daangn?
- Daangn was founded by Gary Kim.
- Who are Daangn's investors?
- Daangn's investors include Galdana Ventures, Kakao Ventures, Reverent Partners, SBVA.
- Where is Daangn headquartered?
- Daangn is headquartered in Seoul, KR.