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Key trends we observed 📊
A slight decline in investment activity from the previous week’s total of 80 deals, with only 74 investments observed from 15 – 22 November. Healthcare holds its steady lead amongst other sectors and strategic investments take centre stage with 20 (27%) investments — the leading category for 3 weeks in a row.
Top stories: VCs and Investments 🖥️ ⌨️
Enterprise services company PingCAP raised USD 270 million from Caotue Management, Yunqi Partners, Wuyuan Capital and Morningside Venture Capital for their Series D round.
PingCAP, the open-source software developer best known for NewSQL database TiDB, has raised a $270 million Series D. TiDB handles hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP), and is aimed at high-growth companies, including payment and e-commerce services, that need to handle increasingly large amounts of data.
Going Public — Top IPOs of the week 🏢
Blue Moon Group
Estimated valuation USD 1 billion
IPO filed on 18 November
Blue Moon Group, the leading Chinese laundry detergent maker backed by Hillhouse Capital, plans to raise up to USD 1 billion in an initial public offering in Hong Kong. It aims to launch on the Hong Kong stock exchange (HKEX) by mid-December. BMG received approval from the HKEX on 18 November for first-time share sales.
BMG, established in 1992, is one of China’s first oldest domestic household cleaners companies, selling products in three main categories: fabric care, personal hygiene and home care. Since 2017, it has been the domestic market leader for liquid laundry detergent, liquid soap and concentrated liquid laundry detergent market. BMG has also been the leading brand in the domestic laundry detergent market for 11 consecutive years, since 2009.
Startups on our watchlist 📱 🎥 📺
Multi-channel content platform
BaiTube (白兔视频): Founded in 2017, Series A
Multi-Channel Network (MCN) BaiTube received ten of millions RMB in its recent Series A round. Investors include Z Capital and Weeds Capital. Founded in 2019, BaiTube has Supported numerous KOLs, including beauty blogger, Luo Wangyu. Luo gained a 10 million-strong following in 15 months. He has been ranked at the top of the ‘star map’ for four consecutive weeks and has set his personal record of selling 13 million units in a single video.
BaiTube has 4 main commercial channels: short-form video, live-streaming, Douyin content creation and brand marketing. BaiTube entered the MCN sector in 2017, focusing on content and video production for other video platforms. When Douyin’s marketing platform was launched in H2 2018, it opened access to MCNs, advertisers and influencers; thus maturing Douyin’s commercialisation model. In 2019, founder Wang Aoyan and co-founder Chen Peijian set up a team dedicated to Douyin content.
Beibeili (贝贝粒): Founded in 2017, Series A
Beibeili successfully raised RMB 70 million for its Series A. Investors include UTokyo Innovation Platform (of Tokyo University), BCG Digital Ventures as well as members of its own founding team. Beibeili originated from Japan and was initially funded by Unicharm and BCG Digital Ventures. It currently operates in Shanghai and Tokyo, with the bulk of its operations is focused in Shanghai.
Beibeili’s business is split into two sections. First, is the mother-baby content channel ‘Babily’. Its mother and infant care content may be accessed via Weibo, Douyin, WeChat, Little Red Book and other leading social media sites; revenue is largely generated through advertising. Second, Beibeili uses its experience to service other enterprises through social media management, content production, influencer management, cross-border e-commerce positioning and more. To date, they have worked with more than 50 domestic and foreign brands.
Want to catch up on what’s been happening in China’s venture scene? Check out our earlier volumes of China’s Venture Roundup here.