Chinese online food ordering site Ele.me announced that it has raised $25 million in Series C funding, led by Sequoia China and joined by existing investors GSR Ventures and Matrix Partners China.
Eleme — “are you hungry” in Chinese — was founded in 2008 and based in Shanghai. It’s website and apps enable users to search for restaurants nearby and make orders. Users don’t have to register with the service for ordering food. Ele.me doesn’t offer delivery support.
The service has had 20,000 partner restaurants in 12 Chinese cities. In 2012 the total sales through Ele.me was 600 million yuan (a little less than $100 mn), out of which the fees the company received was about 10 million yuan (about $16 mn), Eleme told ForbesChina earlier this year (in Chinese). The company charged restaurants 8% of the total sales in early days but later on started charging a fixed fee which is more acceptable with merchants.
Ele.me raised Series A from GSR Ventures in early 2011 and Series B from GSR and Matrix Partners China in early 2013. The company has over 200 employees.
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