Web celeb Wang Sicong, the only son of China’s richest man Wang Jianlin, on Saturday posted on his WeChat Moments wall, writing off the current hot power bank rental business in the country just two days after cosmetics e-commerce giant Jumei announced its purchase on buying the majority stake in startup Ankerbox for RMB 300 million (USD 44 million).
“If power bank rentals become a feasible business in the future, I’ll eat shit. This post is a proof,” wrote Wang.
This audacious man is hard on himself.
Although Wang posts a lot about celebrities on China’s social media platforms, attacking movie stars for their apparently inappropriate behavior and posting photos of good looking female web celebs, the young man has an investment portfolio as the founder of Prometheus Capital which manages more than RMB 3 billion (USD 434 million) worth of assets. AllChinaTech picked the top five startups that Wang has invested in to give a glimpse of Wang’s investment.
Founded in: 2016
Headquarters: Beijing
Financing status: USD 25 million Series A financing in June 2016
Fenda literally means “one-minute answer” in Mandarin. The app, launched on May 15 last year, allows users to share their knowledge and insights via voice messages.
Fenda users can ask particular celebrities or experts questions, and offer prices for their answers. The celebrity or expert being asked the questions can then choose whether that price is acceptable or not. They can answer the question via a voice message under a minute and get paid after answering each question.
As of June 2016, Fenda has attracted over 10 million users, among which 1 million are paying users. The transactions on Fenda have reached a total value of RMB 18 million.
Taidu
Founded in: 2014
Headquarters: Shanghai
Financing status: RMB 50 million (USD 7 million) Series A financing in April 2016
Li Xiaofeng, better known to his fans as Sky, is a legendary esports player in China. Li won the World Cyber Games’ Warcraft 3 championship in 2005 and 2006 as a professional esports player. In 2015, at the age of 30, he announced that he will retire to focus on his startup Taidu.
The company sells gadgets like smart gaming mouses that are specially made for gamers. The gaming mouse can monitor heart rates to help analyze the psychological states of gamers during a competition. Priced at RMB 300, the company has sold tens of thousands of them.
Kr Space
Founded in: 2014
Headquarters: Beijing
Financing status: RMB 200 million (USD 30 million) financing in November 2016
36Kr, China’s one-stop service platform for startups, in January 2016 announced its spinoff and financing of Kr Space, China’s co-working and incubator startup.
On top of offering co-working spaces, Kr Space provides other basic services needed to run a business. These include legal and taxation related services. Aside from that, Kr Space provides professional services such as financial advisory (FA) services for startups’ financing and cloud storage.
Renrenche
Founded in: 2014
Headquarters: Beijing
Financing status: USD 150 million Series D financing in September 2016
Renrenche, the customer-to-customer (C2C) car trading platform, saw 18,000 cars being sold in the month of July last year. That is approximately one transaction every three minutes, according to the startup.
Li Jian, CEO of Renrenche, was once the youngest ever products director at Baidu. He then resigned from the post and worked for classified ads website 58.com and Microsoft. Thereafter, Li founded the online used car marketplace.
Le Sports
Founded in: 2014
Headquarters: Beijing
Financing status: RMB 8 billion (USD 1.2 billion) Series B financing in April 2016
China’s tech giant LeEco founded its sports subsidiary Le Sports to focus on its sports game streaming business. 20 investors that participated in Le Sports’ whopping Series B financing include shipping giant HNA Group, Wang’s Prometheus Capital and Wang’s father real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin.
The Le Sports platform covers streaming for a wide array of sports games, including soccer, basketball, and golf.
(Top photo from Baidu Images)