Cogobuy, established in 2011 by Cogo Group (NASDAQ: COGO) — one of China’s largest electronics components distributors, is an online retailer for electronics components.
Thanks to the success of its parent company, Cogobuy would quickly gain traction. The annual transaction volume through Cogobuy in 2013 increased four fold than the previous year that reached RMB4 billion (more than US$60mn).
Cogobuy is one of the most active backers of smart hardware in China. With the emergence of smart hardware movement worldwide, we saw increasingly more makers, not only from China but also from the rest of the world, began to flight to Shenzhen area, one of China’s manufacturing hubs and where Cogobuy is based. Shenzhen doesn’t only accommodate veteran electronics manufacturers, but also is full of various, low-cost electronics components.
Makers who haven’t been in Shenzhen, of course, can buy components through online platforms such as Alibaba’s alibaba.com (wholesale) or Aliexpress (retail), or Cogobuy.
Cogobuy has reached partnership of JD.com, the leading Chinese online retailer who has a dedicated program for smart devices and home appliances. It is expected Cogobuy will help makers on the manufacturing side and JD.com will help with online sales and marketing.
The company initiated a contest, called ingdan, for smart hardware this year, providing seed capital financing to several winning projects.
Liu Hongjiao, vice president of Cogobuy, said at an event yesterday that the company will go IPO next month (July 2014). Instead of the U.S. where its parent company got listed in 2005, Cogobuy chooses Hong Kong. The company reportedly will raise US$200 million to US$300 million.
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