
China’s Renren invests in US online broking platform
Chinese social networking platform Renren has committed $40 million to Motif Investing, a US-based online broking platform that has previously received funding from several venture capital investors.
The company allows investors to trade "motifs," which are baskets of stocks and bonds built around particular themes or investment styles. Each basket contains up to 30 financial instruments that focus on ideas conceived by investors on a day-to-day basis. Investors can trade in and out of these motifs for a single low fee.
Motif Investing is a registered broker dealer and the platform is open to individual investors and financial advisors. The company raised a Series D round worth $35 million in May 2014 from J.P. Morgan, Wicklow Capital and Balderton Capital, alongside existing investors Goldman Sachs, Foundation Capital, Ignition Capital and Norwest Venture Partners.
Motif Investing's first round of $6 million was provided by Foundation and Norwest in July 2011, according to CrunchBase. It was followed by a $20 million Series B a few weeks later and then a $25 million Series C round in 2013.
"We believe Motif Investing is the kind of company that can transform markets," said Joe Chen, founder of Renren. "Its disruptive technology has broad application to retail and institutional investing in the US and international markets."
Chen has joined the Motif Investing board along with Carl Stern, former vice chairman of Goldman's investing banking division and former chairman and CEO of Boston Consulting Group.
Renren is the leading real-name online social networking platform in China. It was backed by a number of VC investors ahead of a NASDAQ IPO in 2011. As of September 2014, the company had around 219 million activate users, 80% of whom accessed the platform via mobile devices.
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