Chinese mobile shopping service Koudai Gouwu (“Pocket Shopping”) today announced it has received a massive US$350 million Series C funding led by Tencent and Tiger Fund with the participation of H Capital, Vy Capital, Falcon Edge, DST. Of the total, Tencent has invested US$145 million for a 10% stake in the company.
Kaodai Gouwu is a mobile shopping service which offers recommendations for users, such as shops, fashion matches, trending products, new arrivals, and editor’s choice. It allows users to review shopping comments by fashionable ladies and beauty experts. Its business model centers on matching shopping interest with merchants and charging for lead generation and possibly also transaction commissions. In addition to redirecting users to Alibaba’s Taobao, Koudai is also a major mobile shopping app that supports WeChat store browsing.
The company’s new product WeDian is a mobile e-commerce platform where small vendors can open stores online and promote their products through various social networking platforms like WeChat. Launched in January this year, it has attracted vendors from 172 countries around the world as of September 2014, and hitting 83 million visitors per month. The total sales of the marketplace has reached RMB15 billion (US$2.45 billion), according to Wang Ke, CEO and founder of the company.
Wang added that the firm plans to invest RMB200 million to bring traffic from Koudai Gouwu and other partner apps like Mligo, to WeiDian retailers.
The company had previously secured Series B investment from Warburg Pincus and US$12 million Series A funding led by Chenwei Ventures and Matrix Partners in 2012. The angel round is raised from Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s founder who is also a legendary angel investor, in 2010.
image credit: Koudai Gouwu
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