Vertex leads $30m round for Chinese e-commerce site Metao

The start-up received $5 million in Series A funding from Matrix in July, according to AVCJ Research.

Launched in March, Metao provides a platform to facilitate cross-border transactions. It also offers special discounts on overseas products to Chinese consumers. The company claims to have built up a base of about one million users since inception, with monthly sales of over RMB10 million ($1.6 million).

The new funding will be used for team building, market expansion, branding and logistics system upgrades, Wenbin Xia, Metao's founder, told local media.

In September, DHGate.com, a Chinese B2B cross-border e-commerce marketplace, secured a Series D round of funding from China Growth Capital and TDF Capital.

The likes of Alibaba, Amazon and eBay also focus on cross-border e-commerce opportunities in China. EBay partnered with PayPal to enable Chinese merchants to open shops online and sell Chinese-made products to US consumers, while Amazon wants to export to the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, giving Chinese consumers direct access to US-made products.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• Venture
• China
• e-commerce
• TMT
• Consumer
• Venture
• Vertex Management (II)
• Morningside Technologies
• Matrix Partners