Our weekly column summarizes tech financing highlights in China.
According to a recent industry report, hundreds of millions of Chinese enterprise-operated bicycles are is use domestically as well as in various regions overseas. Bike-sharing is too large a market to be captured by just one or two bike-sharing firms. By now, we have ofo, Mobike, Hellobike as the main players. Even Didi Chuxing, the ride-hailing giant, has an eye on the bike-sharing market by introducing its own brand QingjuDanche. We can see these bike-sharing players are trying their best to secure a larger market share. This week, Hellobike introduced a deposit-free bike-sharing strategy for all of its users in China. Hellobike’s founder said that their orders increased by 70% after introducing the deposit-free policy.
1. On March 12, 99click received USD 6 million in a Series-A funding round led by Oriental Fortune Capital. 99click is a big-data-based marketing services provider that helps enterprises collect and analyze data, as well as optimize marketing strategies, in order to facilitate businesses. The capital will be used to further invest in the R&D of its products, as well as expand sales.
2. On March 12, CheWeiGuanJia, a smart parking services provider offering smart parking systems, as well as parking lot management solutions, received USD 16 million for a Series A+ financing round from Qianbaocard. The company plans to use the funds to facilitate its businesses.
3. On March 13, Maihaoche secured USD 50 million led by Crescent Point Group. Maihaoche is a B2B car-trading service platform that provides car dealers with supply chain services to facilitate automobile circulation. The capital will be used to improve its operation efficiency, as well as upgrade big data and other technologies.
4. On March 13, Dadaoyongche, an EV-sharing startup that offers station-free EV rental services in cities, received tens of millions in USD for Series B led by BAI. The startup plans to use the funding to facilitate its market influence.
5. On March 14, 315NET, an anti-counterfeiting technology provider that mainly services its partnered brands and enterprises with anti-counterfeiting technology support in trading cases, secured USD 32 million in funding from Chuanshan Capital. The company plans to use the capital to capture a larger market share.
6. On March 14, Haiyi received millions of USD for financing from JD Finance. Haiyi is a fin-tech startup that provides clients with portfolio analysis, funding asset management, and risk management solutions. Haiyi will further explore financial technology in more consumption cases with JD Finance.
7. On March 16, Qutoutiao secured hundreds of millions in USD funding led by Tencent, pushing the former’s Pre-IPO valuation to USD 2 billion. Qutoutiao is a news and videos aggregator that provides users with entertainment and life-based content utilizing big data and AI. The capital will be used to further expand its user base.
(Top photo from Hellobike)
