Weimob, a WeChat marketing solution provider, and HNA Capital Group Co., Ltd. announced a strategic partnership to collaborate on internet finance and insurance at a conference held in Shanghai on Monday.
The partnership between Weimob and HNA Group, the parent company of Hainan Airline, is the latter’s effort to own more of the internet finance and insurance sector. Weimob is one of the China’s largest WeChat service providers, having grown from 16 to 1,500 employees in four years, according to Weimob. The Shanghai-based company claims that it is currently valued at more than 3 billion yuan (about $458 million USD).
Under the partnership, HNA Capital will work with Weimob to develop e-commerce products and internet social insurance products for its flagship mobile e-commerce platform, Mengdian. Their strategic cooperation will involve several areas of internet banking, insurance, payments, tourism and cross-border e-commerce, including logistics.
“Hainan Airlines’ flights, hotels and tourism products will be purchased and shared through Mengdian,” Weimob’s spokesperson said in the press conference. “We will especially benefit from HNA Group’s logistics system to build Mengdian’s micro business alliance globally.”
Weimob raised a series A from Meridian Capital China in 2015, and received a series B investment led by Jinzi Ham, a Shenzhen-listed packaged food manufacturer, in April 2015. Last November, Weimob announced a 500 million RMB (about $80 million USD) series C led by Hainan Airlines.
Weimob is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that primarily provides enterprises with WeChat-based development, operation, training, and promotional solutions.
“We realized that so many companies in China were struggling with how to distribute their service to target customers, whether or not they have a platform to spread out their brand,” the company said in an email interview with TechNode. “It was for that purpose, Weimob was born. Weimob can help companies and brands on the distribution of their service on Wechat.”
Established in April 2013, Weimob claims that more than 1.7 million businesses have used its Wechat marketing and CRM solutions. The company launched Mengdian in 2015. In addition to domestic products, Mengidan includes products from 32 other countries, including South Korea, Singapore, and Japan, according to Weimob.
Image Credit: Weimob