LeEco’s subsidiary Le Sports announced on Tuesday that it completed Series B financing, landing RMB eight billion (USD 1.2 billion) in total and pushing its valuation to RMB 21.5 billion (USD 3.3 billion).
According to NetEase News, Chinese aviation and shipping conglomerate HNA Group led this round of financing, followed by over 20 investors including Zhongze Culture Investment, CQB Hedge Fund and Zhongtai Securities. A dozen Chinese movie stars also took part in this round of financing.
HNA Group’s Caissa Travel announced in mid-March that it would invest RMB 1.2 billion (USD 185 million) along with two other HNA Group companies in the Series B funding of Le Sports in exchange for 5.85% of its shares.
Le Sports completed its Series A financing led by Wanda Group in May 2015. It also completed Series A+ financing led by Yunfeng Group, followed by Fortune Link and Prometheus Capital.
“Global business will be Le Sports’ focus in our next step, and we will start with Hong Kong,” said Le Sports CEO Lei Zenjian.
With the new round of financing, Le Sports aims to acquire more international games broadcasting rights, set up overseas offices and explore monetizing models including expanding it sports lottery business and upgrading its membership system.
I’ve been watching the LeSports story for awhile. Still not clear, what is their monetization model? They’re great at burning through cash, but how do they expect to make it back? Advertising? Any insight appreciated.
Thank you for the comment, Aaron. Basically, users’ traffic on Le Sports website and app, games broadcasting right (which can be sold to others, personal view), Le Sports membership charges (in trial, you have to pay to watch particular games), sports lottery, and, like you said, advertising.