The Tech in Asia team wrote about 200 articles about China-based startups during the course of 2014, so we thought it’d be fun to look into which of those were your favorites. The end result is a nice mix of profiles, reviews, and funding news.
Let’s start back in January 2014:
1. China’s version of Coin
Coin, the much-hyped digital credit card that turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, got a Chinese clone at the start of the year.
The Beijing-based OneCard team put its project onto a local crowdfunding site and ultimately raised over US$50,000. However, the startup has failed to stick to its promise to ship to consumers in November and the startup’s official Weibo page has been silent for months. We’re not yet sure if this gadget will turn out to be vaporware.
2. Budget air purifiers for China’s smoggy cities
The cheap but frankly ugly do-it-yourself air purifier kit from Smart Air is designed – if “design” is the right word – to bring down the price of clean air in the face of China’s severe pollution problems.
3. 12 tech entrepreneurs under 30 making awesome stuff in China
Inspired by a Forbes list of young entrepreneurs in China, we decided to pick out the most exciting-sounding and promising tech and web startups run by under-30 entrepreneurs in the country.
4. Why a female founder started a company to help women find jobs, and why she quit
Lu joined up with two other co-founders to build Weipin, an online marketplace for homeowners in China to find and hire live-in ayi – a colloquial term for maids. She was most interested in the social enterprise aspect of the business and the chance to help underprivileged Chinese women find good work.
5. A social network for China’s pampered pets
China’s pet-care market is worth at least $1.2 billion as the nation’s growing middle class takes to pampering cats and dogs. About 33 million households in the country have a cat or a dog. China’s pet owners now even have their own social networking app.
6. Chinaccelerator’s 5th batch of startups
Chinaccelerator held its fifth Demo Day in May for its newest batch of graduating startups. It was the first one since the program relocated from Dalian to be closer to the Chinese tech action – and the hipsters – in Shanghai. Check out the nine graduates.
7. This is China’s answer to the Oculus Rift
Beijing-based startup ANTVR launched a Kickstarter in mid-May for its virtual reality device. It launched for real in December.
8. Mogujie raises US$200 million in funding
China’s biggest Pinterest look-alike, Mogujie, is one of the country’s biggest indie startups. Goldman Sachs’ Magnolia Fund led the US$200 million investment, joined by Zhixin Capital, Qiming Ventures, IDG, and Banyan Fund.
9. Mothers I’d like to fund: Chinese social network for moms gets $20 million
A Chinese social network for mothers secured US$20 million in series B funding in July to help it grow. LMBang (short for la ma bang, which can be translated as “hot moms group”) already has 20 million registered users, of whom 2.6 million are daily active users.
10. WeChat for the workplace
Enterprise chat app Maimai announced in August that it received US$20 million in series B funding from Morningside Ventures and IDG. The app, which describes itself as a “work version of WeChat”, reports 800,000 registered users.
11. Wearable tech made by women for women
“The only way to speak to women is to make sure their voice is integrated into the product, from concept through completion,” says Jing Zhou, the entrepreneur behind the glitzy piece of wearable tech that is the Elemoon wristband.
12. Turning old shipping containers into hydroponic farms
This 13-year-old shipping container in the middle of a field in Beijing’s Shunyi district might not be easy on the eyes, but it’s shaping up to be a godsend for the tongue. On the inside, it’s been completely renovated to house a fully automated hydroponic farm with 1,600 heads of lettuce, celery, and other leafy greens for human consumption.
13. How 2 Australians created one of China’s hottest startups
There’s a huge rush for overseas property as middle-class and wealthier Chinese seek investment opportunities that are a safer bet than the nation’s shaky stocks. One China-based startup called Juwai, which is run by two Australians, saw this land-grab coming.
14. US$350 million series C funding for a mobile shopping startup that challenges Alibaba
Alibaba’s main estores, Taobao and Tmall, seem to have an unassailable lead in the ecommerce war in China. But new challengers are still growing strongly. In October, a Chinese mobile shopping portal called Koudai Gouwu attracted US$350 million in funding to help continue its surprising growth.
15. Uber for local deliveries in China
Renren Kuaidi, a crowdsourced delivery system, secured a US$15 million series A round of funding from Tencent and Banyan Fund in November.
16. China’s top gay hook-up app
China’s most bootylicious gay hook-up app, Blued, secured US$30 million in series B funding in November. This dwarfs the app’s series A round, which amounted to US$1.6 million in February.
17. Shanghai startup that combines Slack, Dropbox, and Trello
Teambition, the maker of a cloud-based collaboration and project management tool, announced a couple of weeks ago that it secured a US$5 million series A round of funding.
18. Taxi app revs up with US$700 million in funding
Topping off a year of escalating funding rounds for Chinese startups, taxi app Didi Dache nabbed a massive US$700 million earlier this month. This dwarfs the US$100 million it netted at the start of 2014.
See: China’s 13 most valuable startups, in one infographic
This post 18 of your favorite Chinese startup stories in 2014 appeared first on Tech in Asia.
18 of your favorite Chinese startup stories in 2014
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