This article was published on July 3, 2025, at 4:31 p.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
CJ Group's food ingredient distribution and corporate meal service company CJ Freshway is moving to sell the food tech startup MarketBoro. This appears to be part of an effort to liquidate equities in companies that have weak synergies with CJ Freshway among those invested during the tenure of former CJ Freshway CEO Jeong Seong-pil.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 3rd, CJ Freshway is inquiring about acquisition intentions from major buyers for the sale of MarketBoro. The target of the sale is the 27% equity that CJ Freshway holds in MarketBoro. Although the sale price has not been determined, CJ Freshway's evaluated book value of MarketBoro was 45.4 billion won as of the end of last year.
CJ Freshway became the second-largest shareholder of MarketBoro by acquiring 27% equity for 40.3 billion won as part of its digital transformation strategy three years ago to launch customer-tailored solutions. MarketBoro operates food ingredient Software as a Service (SaaS) 'MarketBom' and a direct food ingredient open market 'SikBom.'
CJ Freshway seems to be stepping up the liquidation of equities in companies it previously invested in since the new CEO Lee Geon-il took office last year. CJ Freshway has been expanding its investments in various startups under the leadership of former CEO Jeong since declaring its digital transformation in 2021.
CJ Freshway invested 1 billion won in the delivery startup Barogo and 500 million won in the restaurant startup Plating Corporation in 2021. The following year, it invested 1.765 billion won in the childcare enterprise resource planning (ERP) company Hanguro and 2.369 billion won in the smart farm solution company Permit.
A representative of CJ Freshway said, "From the perspective of managing a minority equity investment portfolio, we had initiated a sale at the beginning of the year; however, nothing has been decided as of now."