# WeMakePrice (2010 – 2025)

- URL: https://girisimcikafasi.com/en/startup-graveyard/wemakeprice/
- Sector: E-commerce
- Country: South Korea
- Total funding: $400 million
- Unicorn: yes, peak valuation $2.1 billion
- Cause of closure: Ran out of cash

## What did it do?

WeMakePrice was an online shopping platform that rose with Coupang and Tmon in South Korea's daily-deal wave. It ran a marketplace where sellers offered discounted goods. It reported USD 1.36 billion of turnover in 2014. Singapore-based Qoo10 bought the company in April 2023.

## Why did it shut down?

The company reached a value of 2.5 trillion won in December 2019, but passed to Qoo10 in April 2023. Qoo10 made a string of acquisitions from 2022 to 2024, and sources said the group may have been strained by them. Seller payments faltered in early July 2024, and on 29 July 2024 WeMakePrice and Tmon went to court. The company found no buyer and filed no rehabilitation plan by the deadline of 4 September 2025. The court ended the process on 9 September 2025, with assets of 48.6 billion won against debts of 446 billion won. Bankruptcy followed on 10 November 2025, affecting about 108,000 people with damage of 600 billion won.

## The story

WeMakePrice was born in South Korea's group-buying craze. It grew alongside Coupang and Tmon, and the three were seen as the country's first generation of e-commerce players. In August 2015 NXC, the owner of Nexon, invested 100 billion won. When IMM Investment put in 120 billion won in December 2019, the company's value reached 2.5 trillion won, two and a half times the 1 trillion won of 2015.

In April 2023 it passed to Qoo10, which was also collecting Tmon and other platforms.

In July 2024 the system broke. Seller payments stopped, travel firms said they would not honour bookings, and the government prepared emergency support worth hundreds of billions of won. On 29 July 2024 the two companies asked the court for protection.

Tmon was sold to Oasis in June 2025. WeMakePrice found no buyer. On 10 November 2025 the court declared it bankrupt, saying its liquidation value clearly exceeded the value of keeping it going. About 108,000 creditors were left with losses of 600 billion won.

## Lessons

- On a marketplace, sellers' money is not your cash. Treat the gap between collection and payout as working capital and the first delay burns all your trust at once.
- Sell your company to a group on a buying spree and your sellers become tied to its balance sheet, not yours. Watch your owner's cash as if it were your own risk.
- A valuation will not save you: a company once put at 2.5 trillion won found no buyer at all in court in 2025. If you want to stay saleable, give sellers and customers a reason to remain after a crisis.

## Sources

- [Court declares WeMakePrice bankrupt](https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/business/companies/20251110/court-declares-wemakeprice-bankrupt)
- [WeMakePrice declared bankrupt by Seoul court](https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/business/wemakeprice-declared-bankrupt-by-seoul-court/12422846)
- [WeMakePrice receives W120 bil. from IMM Investment](https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/business/companies/20191210/wemakeprice-receives-w120-bil-from-imm-investment)
- [TMON, WeMakePrice file for court receivership amid liquidity troubles](https://www.kedglobal.com/newsView/ked202407290012)
- [WeMakePrice lands $85M investment with NXC, Nexon](https://besuccess.com/wemakeprice-lands-85m-investment-with-nxc-nexon/)