Tencent is China’s second-biggest internet company, recently stripped of its number one spot by Alibaba. It’s also one of the country’s most active venture capitalists. While Alibaba made headlines with massive investments into big established companies, Tencent got down and dirty with early stage investments into nascent startups.
Not that Tencent didn’t get its fair share of eye-popping deals. Tencent participated in nearly three dozen funding rounds this year alone, about half of which were seed, series A, or series B rounds. That’s an average of three investments per month. Here they are, in roughly chronological order according to ITJuzi‘s database and our own archives:
Futu
This fintech startup makes real-time trading apps for stock market investors, a financial news site, and forums for financial experts. Futu received a vague “tens of millions of RMB” from Tencent in January.
China South City
This Hong Kong-listed corporation develops and operates large-scale logistics and trade centers throughout China. It moves everything from raw materials to finished products. Tencent invested huge sums in China South City twice this year: HKD 1.5 billion (US$193 million) in January and HK 800 million (US$103 million) in September. Tencent now owns a 13 percent stake.
Didi Dache
This series C funding in January was also the first of two huge consecutive investments this year. The taxi-hailing app secured US$100 million to power it in a ferocious battle with Alibaba-backed rival Kuaidi Dache to win over the Chinese market. Neither has backed down, and Tencent just injected another US$700 million in December, making Didi the second-most-funded taxi app in the world after Uber.
Renrendai
Trustbridge Partners and Tencent split the cost of this peer-to-peer lending site’s US$130 million series A funding round in January. That’s right – series A – the biggest series A in China for the entire year that we know of. Dozens of competitors like Edai, PPDai, and Dianrong have since come out of the woodwork to try and grab a slice of China’s lucrative and fast-growing P2P lending market, but Renrendai remains one of the biggest.
Linktech Navi
Tencent acquired Linktech Navi around the same time Alibaba offered to buy a majority stake in Autonavi. The online mapping and navigation firm was purchased by Tencent for an undisclosed sum in January.
Mob Arts
QQ and WeChat might be the more prominent social products in Tencent’s portfolio, but it has a legacy as China’s biggest gaming company as well. Tencent invested “tens of millions of RMB” into Mob Arts in January, then the game studio was acquired by Qunxing Toys in July for RMB 1.44 billion (US$232 million). It has three titles in its mobile game portfolio, with another in development.
Xinyi Network
Xinyi Network makes several tools for smartphone owners, but its flagship product is an app for rooting Android phones and installing different versions of the OS. Tencent sunk “tens of millions of RMB” into a series B round for the startup in February.
Ly.com
Ly.com, also known as 17U, is one of China’s biggest travel and tourism booking sites. After leading its series B round in 2012, Tencent also led an RMB 500 million (US$80.7 million) series C round into 17U in February. Ctrip, China’s leading travel site, then funded the company’s US$200 million series D two months later.
Dianping
Another high-profile investment, Tencent took a 20 percent stake in Dianping for an estimated US$1 billion plus. Dianping is like Yelp and Groupon rolled into one, offering local listing reviews and group buying deals. The series E round led to Dianping’s integration into WeChat.
JD
Possibly the most notable investment by Tencent this year, JD is China’s biggest direct sales marketplace, and the biggest ecommerce company in the country after Alibaba. Just two months before JD achieved China’s biggest ecommerce IPO to date (later surpassed by Alibaba), Tencent invested US$214 million for a 15 percent stake. Like Dianping, JD is now integrated into WeChat.
Maimaibao
Tencent’s hankering for ecommerce didn’t end with JD. Also in March, it led a US$100 million round into this mobile commerce site for low-income feature phone owners. The company reaches out to non-metropolitan areas in China where internet connectivity is still lacking using a WAP mobile site accessible on 2G networks.
CJ Games
Tencent’s first non-Chinese investment of the year was a big one – US$500 million for a 28 percent stake in mobile game developer CJ Games. The Korean studio makes a mix of casual and more in-depth mobile RPG titles. Some are integrated with South Korea’s favorite messaging app, KakaoTalk, which Tencent also owns a stake in.
Leju
What internet giant’s portfolio would be complete without a property portal? This online-to-offline real estate services provider lists and sells both properties across 250 cities in China. Leju, a subsidiary of E-House, secured US$180 million from Tencent in March in exchange for a 15 percent stake, IPO’ed in April, then partnered with its American counterpart, Zillow, in September.
Navinfo
This enterprise digital mapping service was founded way back in 1997. Tencent bought an 11.3 percent stake in Navinfo, one of China’s largest mapping companies, for US$187 million in May. Like Linktech Navi, the investment was made in response to Alibaba’s acquisition of Autonavi.
175Game
175Game snagged RMB 150 million (US$24.2 million) in a series B investment from Tencent in May. The game studio makes PC client, web-based, and mobile games.
Whisper
Tencent contributed to the anonymous confession app’s US$36 million funding round. That doesn’t mean Whisper is coming to China, as Tencent also invested in Snapchat in 2013 with no plans to localize it for Chinese audiences.
58.com
58.com is one of China’s biggest online classifieds sites, rivaled only by Ganji. It IPO’ed in October of last year, then sold a 19.9 percent stake to Tencent in June for US$736 million. Tencent’s cut increased to 24 percent in September after it bought another US$100 million worth of shares. 58.com listings will eventually be integrated into WeChat somehow, but we’ve yet to see that happen.
Picooc
Tencent and JD led Picooc’s series B round worth US$21 million. The hardware startup is perhaps best known for its smart body scales. It’s also planning more gadgets to launch soon, including a fitness wristband and blood pressure monitor.
Edaixi
Edaixi is an O2O laundry pickup app run by Chinese laundromat chain Rongchang. China’s Uber of laundry raised a US$3.2 million seed round from Tencent in July, then another US$20 million in November. Besides the native app, users can also order a pickup via the company’s official WeChat account.
Scaled Interface
Founded by two ex-Googlers, Scaled Interface is building a cloud-based artificial intelligence and machine learning tool for third parties developers to run their apps and services. Tencent participated in the startup’s US$5 million seed round. Scaled Interface then went on to raise another US$8 million from Khosla Ventures in November.
Kuakao
Kuakao is a test prep site for college courses and certifications. The startup raised RMB 30 million (US$4.8 million) in a series B round from Tencent in August.
eJiaJie
Tencent led its second investment into this O2O startup for hiring domestic help alongside Shanda. The location-based startup finds hourly-paid workers to clean the customers’ homes. It now operates in 10 cities and hopes to expand to 30 by the end of the year. The series A round from September was worth US$4 million.
AltspaceVR
This US-based virtual reality company forgoes the obvious gaming applications trophied by Oculus Rift in favor of a more social experience. Users connect in virtual spaces to share anything on the web. You can share a couch in a bachelor pad with friends on the other side of the world to watch a movie, for instance. Tencent participated in AltspaceVR‘s US$5.2 million seed round alongside Google Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, and others.
DXY
DXY runs China’s largest online healthcare community for doctors and other medical and life science professionals. It makes a handful of healthcare-related apps, including a medicine lookup app and doctor consultation app. Tencent invested a US$70 million series A round in DXY in September.
Woqu
Woqu is an online travel agency aimed specifically at Chinese travelers looking to make a trip to the US. It acts as a one-stop shop for everything a Chinese citizen needs for their journey: visas, attraction tickets, SIM cards, insurance, hotel bookings, and more. Tencent led Woqu’s US$20 million series B round in September, followed by Morningside Capital.
Sinopec
China’s biggest state-owned oil company turned over its sales and marketing arm to Tencent and 24 other investors in a deal worth RMB 107.1 billion (US$17.44 billion). Each company can own up to a 2.8 percent stake, though Tencent’s exact contribution was not disclosed. Sinopec’s attempt at privatization will include working with Tencent on mobile payments, big data, and navigation.
Red Dot
Red Dot is an internet radio startup that lets anyone create their own broadcasts for others to listen to. The startup secured a US$3 million series A round from Tencent in September. It now sports both a native app and a WeChat account app, which should be a big boost to an amateur DJ’s virality.
Guahao
Tencent led an estimated US$100 million into this healthcare startup’s series C round in October. The mobile app lets patients connect with doctors to make appointments, check results of recent tests, and make payments to hospitals. It covers over 900 hospitals nationwide, with 37 million registered users.
CLS
Lotteries, as one of the few legal ways to gamble in China, are extremely popular. CLS makes and sells lottery equipment and systems, games, and other solutions along with technical operations to install and maintain the terminals. That includes, video, keno, and online lottery. Tencent in October bought a 7.53 percent stake in China LotSynergy Holdings (CLS) for an undisclosed amount, but based on the number of shares, it’s estimated to be somewhere between US$65 million and US$87 million.
Koudai
In what might have been the most overlooked investment of the year, Tencent and Tiger Fund led a US$350 million series C funding round into this mobile ecommerce marketplace app. Users can browse and make purchases from within WeChat, and small vendors can set up their own shops through Koudai’s WeChat channels. Some media have reported the three-year-old startup gets even more traffic than Taobao on mobile.
Blink
The fun Snapchat-inspired photo sharing app closed a US$20 million series A round of funding in October led by Tencent, followed by Sequoia, H Capital, ZhenFund, and Innovation Works. The bilingual app lets you snap a photo or short video, spray graffiti and text over it, and add a voice message.
Huayi Brothers
This is one of very few companies in which both Tencent and Alibaba participated in the same round of funding. The Beijing-based TV and movie production studio raised RMB 3.6 billion (US$581 million) from the two internet giants and one other Chinese fund. Both Alibaba and Tencent are engaged in a land grab for licensed video content, both in China and overseas.
Renren Kuaidi
This startup lets anyone who meets the eligibility requirements sign up to be a local courier. The crowdsourced delivery network secured a US$15 million series A round from Tencent and Banyan fund. The Uber for local deliveries now operates in six major Chinese cities.
4:33 Creative Lab
Tencent seems to be the go-to investor for Korean game studios looking to break out of their home market. Tencent, Line, and Korea Investment Partners jointly set up a consortium in which Tencent contributed about US$110 million. A large chunk of that money went toward 4:33 Creative Lab, which makes hit titles Arrow and Blade.
Dots
US-based Dots broke away from its parent company Betaworks upon receiving its US$10 million series A investment from Tencent and Greycroft Partners. The simple-yet-beautiful mobile game studio boasts over 45 million users worldwide across its two titles.
Aiming
Tencent inked a deal in December with Japan-based Aiming to distribute the studio’s mobile games in greater China. Whether that means as native apps or on WeChat, we’ve yet to find out. The investment amount was not disclosed. Some of its biggest titles include Lord of Knights, Blade Chronicle, and Logres of Swords and Sorcery: Goddess of Ancient.
WiWide
WiWide is responsible for many of the public wifi hotspots found in major franchise shops throughout China, including Starbucks, Burger King, and several airports. The wifi provider and advertising platform secured RMB 300 million (US$49 million) in series C funding from Tencent and Dianping in December. Through the partnership with Tencent, users can connect to wifi by following a business’ public WeChat account.
Kamcord
US-based Kamcord makes an SDK for mobile game developers to add video recording capabilities to their games. The startup has expanded to Japan and plans on entering Korea and China next year. Tencent participated in the US$15 million series B round in December, which was led by Puzzles and Dragons maker GungHo. This was Tencent’s second consecutive investment into Kamcord, which reports 25 million videos shared.
See: Tencent versus Alibaba: a complete guide to an increasingly fierce rivalry (INFOGRAPHIC)
We’ll be sure to update this list with any more investments between now and the end of the year.
This post WeChat’s growing empire: Here’s everything Tencent invested in or acquired in 2014 appeared first on Tech in Asia.
WeChat’s growing empire: Here’s everything Tencent invested in or acquired in 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment