Esup Company, developer of the AI-based e-commerce M&A brokerage platform Biztos, said on Monday it raised seed funding from Mashup Ventures and Tale Ventures.

Biztos is a platform that brokers transactions between buyers and sellers through data-driven due diligence and valuation for e-commerce businesses. Based on due diligence results, it provides professional acquisition proposals that structure financial, marketing and customer behaviour data. Experts with e-commerce and marketing experience are assigned to each listing and manage the entire process from price negotiations to contracts and closing.

Biztos directly verifies payment gateway, advertising and marketplace data to detect data distortions such as inflated sales and traffic manipulation. It also quantifies intangible assets such as reviews, search rankings and platform algorithms and applies an e-commerce-specific valuation model. The company said this provides a transparent M&A environment that both sellers and buyers can trust.

Esup Company was recently selected for the TIPS programme run by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups after its e-commerce-specific valuation system was recognised, securing up to 500 million won in R&D funding.

Esup Company CEO Sang-cheol Lee (이상철) said it plans to expand its portfolio of listings across all areas of e-commerce, including fashion and beauty, food and living, following the investment. He said it has a vision to develop into an e-commerce-focused fintech infrastructure by adding functions such as revenue-based financing and escrow services.

Mashup Ventures partner Eun-woo Park (박은우), who led the investment, said that despite the South Korean e-commerce market growing to the world’s fifth-largest scale, the reality was that most e-commerce businesses struggled to have their real value properly assessed. He said Esup Company is a team executing a bold vision that starts with valuation for small and mid-sized M&A and expands into new financial services, adding that he expects its growth.