The real-time virtual fitting eyewear commerce company 'ROUNZ' (Representatives Myung Seop Kim and Se Min Kim) announced on the 7th that they have attracted a Series A bridge investment of KRW 5 billion.

This comes about three years after the Series A investment in late 2019, and ESTsoft, the parent company, ACE Asset Management's ACE Multiasset Investment Division-managed ACE KOSDAQ Venture Fund No. 1, and Samsung Securities participated in this investment. As a result, ROUNZ has accumulated a total investment of KRW 10 billion.

ROUNZ is a startup that commercialized real-time virtual fitting technology for the first time in the eyewear e-commerce market in South Korea. With the ROUNZ app that allows users to virtually try on glasses and sunglasses, the company has changed the existing prejudice that glasses must be tried on in person and purchased offline, surpassing cumulative sales of KRW 25 billion.

Last year, the company's virtual fitting technology was also recognized and introduced as the only case of augmented reality application on the Apple Korea website among domestic companies.

In particular, this year, they have also ventured into the B2B business of opticians, estimated to be worth KRW 2 trillion annually, and in just 8 months, have signed contracts with more than 430 opticians nationwide, laying the groundwork for significant revenue growth.

In South Korea, the eyewear industry is legally required to purchase lens with a prescription from an optician. As an online commerce company, ROUNZ has set a business principle of co-growth with existing opticians, and has presented the market with an evolved business model of building an eyewear specific omnichannel. As a result, the number of opticians partnering with ROUNZ has reached over 550 nationwide.

ROUNZ plans to invest heavily in expanding their eyewear omnichannel service connecting online and offline with the investment funds.

ROUNZ representative Myung Seop Kim stated, "Next year, we plan to expand sales and profits through investments in offline business sectors," and "to intensify collaboration with opticians who are experiencing severe difficulties from market saturation to COVID-19."

He continued, "ROUNZ's software technology and data analysis capabilities are unique in the eyewear market, and with this technology, we are creating a new omnichannel service." And "We will focus on enhancing the competitiveness of our national partner opticians with ROUNZ."