Shanghai may not be the first name people think of when it comes to the startup scene, but the cosmopolitan city is becoming increasingly popular with both entrepreneurs and venture investors. Shanghai’s startup community is know to be smaller than Beijing’s, but it is more accessible and suits foreigners who want to avoid a total culture shock.
In the first quarter of 2015, Shanghai has witnessed overall 75 investments in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sector, most of which are focused on local lifestyle and online finance industries, according to a report release by government-backed research institution Shanghai Promotion Center of Mobile Internet Industry.
During the reporting period, China has recorded a total of 391 investments. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu have recorded 140, 75, 54, 27 and 14 cases respectively, accounting for a combined 80% of the total investments.
Six out of the total 75 cases in Shanghai have received funding higher than US$50 million, representing 10.9% of the city’s total investments. They are online food delivery service Ele.me (US$350M), classifieds service Baixing (US$100M), steel trading platform Zhaogang (US$100M), cross-border shopping site Ymatou (US$100), hotel reservation app iMike (US$50M), online financing service Julend (hundreds of million dollars).
Local lifestyle and online financing services lead the financing with 23 and 12 cases, followed by e-commerce platform (7), entertainment service (7), digital marketing platform (4) and social networking (4).
Pudong District, Jiading District and Minhang District took the top 3 spots with 22, 10 and 8 investment cases, respectively.
image credit: Shanghai Promotion Center of Mobile Internet Industry & ShutterStock
