Our weekly column summarizes the tech financing highlights in China this week.
Though the Chinese logistics market seems saturated with so many different firms competing with one another, high quality logistics services are still in demand. On February 25th, JD’s logistics subsidiary, JD Logistics, received USD 2.5 billion in a Series A round from a group of investors including Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia China, China Merchants Group, Tencent, China Development Bank Capital FOF, China Structural Reform Fund and ICBC International, among others. This current funding round will mainly be used to further invest in expanding areas like automation and drone and robotics technology. JD Logistics will continue to support both JD.com’s e-commerce business and its logistical needs in a wide range of industries for years to come. JD.com expects to become the largest B2C platform and aims to surpass Alibaba in China. JD is stressing the importance of logistics for its expansion aims, since excellent logistics greatly improve the shopping experience. At the moment, JD logistics is in an advantageous position.
1. On February 11th, Club Factory, a cross-border e-commerce startup that mainly operates e-commerce between China and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other developing regions, received USD 100 million in Series C funding from IDG, Bertelsmann, ZhenFund and FreesFund. The startup plans to expand its business and improve its consumer experience with the money.
2. On February 11th, Genecast, a tumor diagnosis and treatment startup which tests patients for cancer and provides other molecular biology-related services, landed USD 33 million in Series C funding led by Loyal Valley Innovation Capital and Matrix Partners China. The capital will be used to further invest in product development, business expansion, and marketing.
3. On February 12th, Haoqipei, an auto parts B2B trading platform, received an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series A+ round from SIG. The startup will use the funding to increase its influence in the auto parts trading industry in order to enlarge its market share.
4. On February 12th, DataVisor, a big data fraud detection startup, received USD 40 million in a Series C funding round that was led by Sequoia Capital China. DataVisor combines cutting-edge AI and big data technologies to detect attacks before any damage has been done. The capital will be used to create more products and upgrade its service.
5. On February 14th, Modian, a crowdfunding platform that mainly focuses on providing crowdfunding services for projects in the culture, gaming and entertainment fields, landed USD 16 million in a Pre Series A financing round led by Chinese microblogging site Weibo. The company plans to use the funds to launch crowdfunding on Weibo for a highly efficient promotion.
6. On February 22nd, Mangguochuxing, an EV (Electric Vehicle) sharing startup that operates EV hourly rental services, received an undisclosed amount of funding in a Pre Series A round from Wenxin Group. The startup will use the capital to expand its EV rental services to more cities in China.
(Top photo from 699pic.com)