Unlike the plummeting U.S. home services market, online home service platforms are mushrooming in China. The latest winner is Shanghai-based O2O domestic service company Yunjiazheng, announced to have received its series B fundraising of USD 12 million.
This round of funding was led by SIG with a follow up by returning investor BlueRun Ventures, IT news website DoNews reported on Wednesday. Xue Shuai, CEO of Yunjiazheng discloses that funding will be used to expand services into more Chinese cities, fastening the service process and improving service quality.
Founded in 2010, Yunjiazheng resembles the B2B2C model of China’s biggest e-commerce site Taobao. Without offline stores or contracted housekeepers, Yunjiazheng is more of a platform, through which businesses register as online stores, for customers to search and order house cleaners, child care workers, and maternity matrons.
The company eyes surpassing the American family service platform and public company Care.com, the largest of its kind in the the world, having debuted on the New York stock exchange in 2011. Care.com suffered a net loss of USD 17.4 million in the third quarter 2015, a 20% year-over-year decrease due to the overall declining U.S. family service market. Care.com’s rival Homejoy shut down in July.
In contrast, online home cleaning service firms have mushroomed in China’s large cities since 2014, all having sniffed the great demand from busy urbanites who want their housework done.
Service providers that can be named are mostly based in Beijing, including Tencent-invested 1jiajie, the first to receive its series C funding among the rivals; 58 Daojia, owned by China’s largest classifieds site 58.com; Ayibang who has received tens of millions of dollars in series B financing, and Xiaomaguanjia, or Pony Housekeeper in English backed by Matrix Partners China.