Uhouzz, a house renting and buying platform for Chinese students overseas, has raised RMB 50 million (USD 7.5 million) in Series A financing on Monday. It is now valued at RMB 330 million (USD 49.4 million), Chinese tech media 36kr.com reported.
Tianjin Venture Capital led this round of investment, along with Leo Group. The platform received RMB 46.8 million (USD 7.0 million) series pre-A funding from Leo Group, New Oriental, and UTour.
The new capital will be used to get more properties listed on Uhouzz, mainly in the United States, England, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
Founded in 2015, the platform focuses on accommodation for Chinese students overseas, providing multiple choices such as student housing, house rental, house buying, homestay, and some other customized services. It claims that the platform has attracted 300,000 registered users, with 4,000 completed transactions. The platform has covered 236 cities with over 1,800 individual dwellings. It is noteworthy that use on mobile devices had climbed from 10% to 60% in overall transactions over a time span of three months.
As to revenue, 60% of the company’s revenue are from house rentals, with house buying and ads making up 30% and 10% of overall revenue respectively.
“90% Chinese students who study overseas will request services from mobile devices,” said Yin Jiankun, founder and CEO of Uhouzz. He was the Assistant Vice President of New Oriental, China’s largest provider of English learning services for students who are going to study abroad.
（Top photo from http://www.acnw.com.au）