Chinese virtual reality (VR) device maker Baofeng Mojing announced it has raised RMB 230 million (USD 34 million) in Series B financing. This round of financing boosts Baofeng Mojing’s valuation to RMB 1.43 billion (USD 210 million), the Tech channel of Tencent News reported on Thursday.
The current round of financing is led by CITIC Capital, followed by Chinese online game company Zeus Interactive, Chinese internet industry fund Baofeng Xinyuan, and investors from Baofeng’s Series A financing including, Beijing Baofeng Technology and Huayi Brothers.
Founded in 2015, Baofeng Mojing or “Storm Magical Mirror” in English, is a subsidiary of Beijing Baofeng Technology, a leading Chinese online video company. The company had sold over 500,000 VR devices as of last December. It received USD 10 million in Series A financing last April, and was valued at USD 50 million.
Baofeng Mojing has been expanding its resources on the upstream and downstream of the VR industry chain to overcome disadvantages in content and channels. It has launched a series of VR games, and bought the Chinese VR copyrights to the Hollywood blockbuster The Hunger Games and the Chinese copyright to the VR film MansLaughter, the Chinese tech media site 36Kr reported.
Baofeng Mojing has many rivals in China. The Chinese tech giant Tencent revealed a VR project, and released the development kit for Tencent VR last December. Chinese online video giant LeEco, previously known as LeTV, announced its entry into the VR sector last December. Xiaomi launched the Xiaomi Exploration Lab to develop VR technology in January.
Besides those tech giants, VR start-up companies also deserve attention. Chinese VR startup ANTVR received USD 46 million in Series B financing last December; DeePoon raised USD 30 million in a B-series funding from two Xiaomi-backed companies, and 3Glasses works with offline 3D theaters and experience stores to promote its products, and has over 1,000 experience stores in China.
A correction was made that the valuation of Baofeng Mojing is RMB 1.43 billion (USD 210 million).