The Onion, a Korean startup operating a farm product direct-from-farm fulfillment service, announced that it has attracted follow-up Pre-Series A investment from New Paradigm Investment. The amount was not disclosed. This marks the second follow-up investment since the Pre-Series A investment in November last year, with New Paradigm Investment participating exclusively.

The Onion operates ‘Parado,’ a data-based farm collective purchasing solution, resolving the chronic inefficiencies of the existing food ingredient distribution structure through technology. Through AI-based price volatility analysis and a farm collective purchasing system, it offers cost reduction and stable supply to restaurant businesses, and improved profits and expanded sales channels to farmers through direct transactions.

Since its official service launch in February 2024, the cumulative number of transacting restaurant businesses has reached approximately 1,500, with cumulative sales of approximately USD 2.19 million (KRW 3 billion) and a repurchase rate of 75%. Through the Parado solution, restaurateurs are reducing food ingredient costs by an average of 15% to 17%. The Onion has currently secured over 30 affiliated farms nationwide and is building a data center to provide decision-making tools based on advanced data such as real-time market price analysis, trend of incoming volume by item, and shipping patterns by farm and item.

Je-hyun Park, Co-CEO of New Paradigm Investment, who executed the follow-up investment, stated, “The Onion is rapidly pioneering the market by leading the transition to a data-based distribution structure in the highly uncertain agri-food market. In the traditional industry sector of B2B food ingredient distribution, within less than a year of launch, it has shown meaningful results across all metrics including transactions, sales, and profitability. Furthermore, its strategic expansion roadmap, connecting to vertical integration and global expansion, is clear.”

He added, “The domestic food ingredient distribution market is approximately USD 46.6 billion (KRW 64 trillion) in size, but over 60% still remains in traditional offline methods. The Onion is a rare team with the execution capability to lead the digital transformation of this market, and we highly rated their product design and operational capabilities, which reflect actual customer needs and on-site feedback.”

Based on this investment, The Onion plans to advance its agri-food vertical data center and agri-food data analysis technology, aiming to establish a transparent data-driven market. In the mid-to-long term, it aims to expand beyond being a distribution startup to become an ‘agri-food vertical platform’ that combines distribution, manufacturing, and data services.

Jong-seok Choi, CEO of The Onion, said, “This follow-up investment acknowledges both our rapid execution and tangible market achievements, as well as our potential as a technological alternative to solve structural problems. We will continue to build a distribution ecosystem that operates on data, not intuition, creating a sustainable connection structure where both agriculture and the restaurant industry benefit.”

CEO Jong-seok Choi of The Onion founded the company based on 15 years of experience as a food and agricultural product procurement data analyst at Nonghyup Bank, WeMakePrice, and Foodpang, and now leads a dream team composed of experts in agri-food and IT.

Established in November 2023, The Onion gained attention immediately after its founding by being selected for the Shinbo Little Penguin Program. Recently, it was also finally selected for the TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup) program, a technology startup support program by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, through a recommendation from New Paradigm Investment, a TIPS operator.