A weekly newsletter summarizing recent activity in the Chinese startup ecosystem.
DEALS OF THE WEEK
Orient Hontai to buy majority stake in Spain’s Imagina for $1b
Orient Hontai has agreed to buy a majority stake in Imagina, a Spanish sports rights group, for $1B. It has the rights to distribute the La Liga football championship.
INTERESTING FUNDRAISING ACTIVITY IN CHINA
Hillhouse Leads $45M Round In Chinese Fitness Start-up Lefit
Lefit (2015, Hangzhou), a fitness start-up gym operator, raises $45M in a series C round of funding led by Hillhouse Capital with participation from IDG Capital and Huasheng Capital.
Alibaba, Beyond Ventures lead $40m funding round in genetic testing startup Prenetics
Prenetics (2009, Hong Kong), a genetic testing startup, raises $40M in a funding round led by Beyond Ventures and the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund with participation from Yuantai Investment Partners, mFund, eGarden Ventures, Ping An Ventures, Lippo Group-backed Ventura Capital and REAPRA.
Knowbox raised $30M Series B funding
KnowBox (2014, Beijing), an online education platform which connects students and teachers, raises $30M in series B round of funding led by Bertelsmann Asia Investments with participation from TAL Education Group, Baidu Ventures, and New World Development.
Matrix Co-Leads $18M Round In Chinese Office Appliance Leasing Platform Edianzu
Edianzu (2015, Beijing), an office appliances leasing platform, raises $18M in series B round of funding led by Matrix Partners China, Aplus Capital, Shunwei Capital and Lakala.
Horizons Ventures leads $7m Series A in MioTech
MioTech ( , Shanghai), an investment management platform that empowers investment managers to better serve their clients in a world of complex data, raises $7M in series A round of funding led by Horizons Ventures and joined by ZhenFund and investors in Hong Kong and China.
Chinese Autonomous Driving Tech Firm Motovis Raises Series A Round
Motovis (2015, Beijing), an autonomous driving technology firm, raises an undisclosed amount in series A round of funding led by Lanting Capital with participation from Keystone Ventures.
Yunqi Leads New Funding Round In Piano Playing Training Hardware Melomemo
Melomemo (2014, Beijing), an intelligent music learning wearable for learning piano, raises an undisclosed amount in series A round of funding led by Yunqi Partners with participation from Lanxiang Capital.
Cathay Capital Fund Leads Series B2 Round In Chinese Autonomous Driving Tech Firm Momenta
Momenta (2016, Beijing), an unmanned vehicle driving technology developer, raises an undisclosed amount in series B2 round of funding led by Cathay Capital Private Equity with participation from GGV Capital.
Overseas Investments and Acquisitions by Chinese Companies
China’s Alibaba Joins $502M Round In US Augmented Reality Start-Up Magic Leap
Magic Leap (2011, Miami), an augmented reality start-up, raises $502M in series D round of funding led by Temasek Holdings with participation from Alibaba Group Holdings, EDBI, Brazilian mass media group Grupo Globo, Janus Henderson Investors, Fidelity Management and Research., Google, J.P. Morgan Investment Management, and T. Rowe Price.
LimeBike raises $50 million to expand dockless bike-sharing
Limebike (2017, San Mateo), a smart bike-rental service provider, raises $50M in series B round of funding led by Coatue Management with participation from GGV Capital, Franklin Templeton Investments, Section 32, AME Cloud, Start-X, Andreessen Horowitz and DCM Ventures.
HK-based Affinity buys Burger King Japan from South Korea’s Lotte
Hong Kong-based Affinity Equity Partners has bought Burger King’s Japan operations from South Korea’s Lotte Group for an undisclosed sum.