이 기사는 2022년 01월 25일 08:11 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Domestic cloud managed service providers (MSPs) are serving as attractive investment opportunities among private equity firms at home and aboard.

South Korea’s cloud market leader Megazone Cloud has started to raise up to 500 billion won ($418 million) in a Series C funding round, with an aim to complete the process in the first half, industry sources said on Friday. The firm decided to carry out another round of fundraising in less than a year after securing about 190 billion won in the Series B funding round in June 2021 from 32 investors including Kakao Investment.

The country’s cloud MSP Cloocus plans to raise 100 billion won. Investors, including existing investors like Stonebridge Capital and SK C&C, will acquire redeemable convertible preferred shares issued by Cloocus. The company’s valuation is expected to increase after being valued at 90 billion won in August 2021.

Bespin Global’s 100 billion won Series D funding round is also underway. The cloud management company was valued at 800 billion won when financial investors conducted due diligence on the firm in November 2021. The company already raised 217 billion won from Premier Partners, Altos Ventures, and SK Telecom and is reportedly planning to raise additional funds at a valuation of 1 trillion won.

Metanet Tplatform has recently completed its fundraising. Last year, Affirma Capital acquired a 20% stake in Metanet Tplatform for 112.5 billion won in a bid to bet on the growth of the cloud computing market.

The country’s major MSPs have raised a total of more than 1 trillion won so far thanks to the strong growth potential of cloud managed services market.

While cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft dominate the domestic cloud market, they do not provide managed cloud services.

“Amazon and Microsoft have to provide SaaS (software as a service) development and security, and customize a huge amount of data instead of just providing cloud computing services,” an industry source said. “Considering domestic companies’ cloud conversion rate is still low, demand for managed cloud services will continue to grow.”

MSPs have much more room for additional growth. Megazone Cloud aims to target overseas markets based on partnerships with domestic and foreign SaaS companies. It already operates overseas entities in the US, Canada, China, Japan, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.

Cloocus plans to establish 10 branches in Asia and Europe by 2023.

Bespin Global has focused on global expansion in recent years. More than 20% of its customer base is companies in overseas markets. It is looking to enter the US market, which is expected to help boost the company’s overseas revenue.

Metanet Tplatform plans to expand into overseas markets through partnerships with its other portfolio companies. Affirma Capital’s global team has built a portfolio of tech companies in Southeast Asia and India. (Reporting by Ha-na Suh)