Don’t miss out these headlines for the week: Startup lands USD 23 M to build preschool education ecosystem; Travel site backed by Kai-fu Lee lands USD 85 M in financing; and Farm direct produce delivery platform lands USD 38 M.
Startup lands USD 23 M to build preschool education ecosystem
Jack Niu
Preschool education platform Huivo announced on Monday that it has landed RMB 150 million (USD 23 million) in a Series B+ financing round.
This round of financing was led by Fosun Kinzon Capital, which specializes in investing in early and growth stage innovative technology companies in both China and the US, and followed by Chinese testing technology and testing services provider TAL.
Zhang Kang, the CEO of Huivo , said this round of fundraising will be used to build a preschool education ecosystem connecting various quality preschool education resources all over the country.
Travel site backed by Kai-fu Lee lands USD 85 M in financing
Eric Sun
Yaochufa.com, a Guangzhou-based online short-haul travel platform, announced it has received RMB 550 million (USD 85 million) in Series D financing and that the former president of Google China, Kai-fu Lee, has become the spokesman for the platform, Sina’s tech channel reported on Monday.
This round of funding is led by UTour, a Beijing-based company engaged in providing tourism and tourism-related services, Kingding Investment, an investment institution based in the Southeastern Chinese city of Quanzhou, and China Securities, a Beijing-based securities company.
Before this latest round of financing, the platform went through three rounds of funding including the angel and A rounds led by Innovation Works in 2011, the Series B round led by Vertex Ventures in 2013, and the C round totalling USD 35 million led by Sequoia China in 2014.
Tencent-backed crowdsourced logistics platform receives USD 50 M
Dora Zhang
Renren Kuaidi, a crowdsourced logistics platform, announced on Monday that it received USD 50 million in a new round of financing. AllChinaTech reached out to the company but more details on funding have yet to be disclosed.
“We will use this round of financing to expand our business scale, improve our market share and competitiveness, and recruit more talent,” said Xie Qin, CEO and founder of the platform, according to Tencent News.
Founded in 2011, Renren Kuaidi, or “people’s delivery” in English, is a third-party logistics service provider based on a crowdsourcing model. People, especially those who have a lot of spare time, can register on the company’s app and the platform will outsource its delivery services to them, similar to the way Uber outsources drivers. Users who perform the delivery services can also make deliveries to clients who live on their routes home so as to earn extra money if they are full-time employees elsewhere.
Farm direct produce delivery platform lands USD 38 M
Yvonne Lek
FreshMarket landed RMB 249 million (USD 38.5 million) in Series C financing last Tuesday, exceeding its initial goal of RMB 50 million, according to a report by 36kr.com.
The Suzhou-based e-commerce platform’s business approach, which it refers to as the C2B2F model, gained the support of investment companies such as Addor Capital, Tiantu Capital, Sharelink Capital and Dingfeng Asset.
C2B2F (consumer to business to farm) refers to a process which starts from the consumer making an order and the company receiving it. The next step requires the company to send the order to a farm, and finally ends with the farm dispatching the fresh goods to the consumer – all within a day.
Surgery-booking platform lands USD 23 M
Dora Zhang
Mingyizhudao.com, a surgery-booking platform, announced on Wednesday that it has completed a Series B round of financing worth RMB 150 million (USD 23 million) led by INC and Hanfor Holdings, followed by Fosun Pharma, Banyan Capital and Zhen Fund.
Sophia Zheng, INC’s CEO, explained why they invested in the platform. She said the platform has a team that works well together and an ability to execute ideas efficiently, according to the tech news website Chuangkem.com.
Launched in October 2014, the platform aims to help patients schedule appointments with renowned doctors. More than 20,000 chief physicians and associate chief physicians from Class A hospitals have registered on the platform, and over 10,000 patients have completed surgery with the platform’s help, the company’s CEO Su Shu said at a press conference on Wednesday.
This startup helps stay-at-home moms start their own businesses
Dora Zhang
This startup began from a friendship. Yu Chunlin earned his fame as a blogger in 2014 for sharing content about child-rearing and family relationships on his WeChat account. He partnered up with his high school classmate Wu Fanghua, who has several years of experience working in the IT industry, to build an online platform. In October 2014, MAMA+ was founded and Wu became its CEO. In December 2014, the company launched davdian.com, a platform for mothers to run their own businesses, network, learn and shop online.
What’s your business model?
We aim to help mothers grow businesses using our platform. After paying a membership fee of RMB 199 (USD 30), mothers can register and open their own stores on the platform. They are responsible for promoting their stores on WeChat, Weibo and other social media platforms and we provide products, warehousing, delivery and after-sales services for them. When a transaction is complete, they will get commission. Right now, we have 200,000 mothers who have opened stores on our platform.
(Top photo screened from Davdian.com)