Dianping leads round for China food ordering platform Meican

Other investors include KPCB, Nokia Growth Partners and TrustBridge Partners, the company confirmed on its official Weibo microblog. Meican's management team remains to be the largest shareholder of the business.

Launched in 2011, Meican provides online food-ordering services in major Chinese cities through its mobile app and website. The start-up plans to cooperate with Dianping to expand into more cities and scale up its offering.

According to AVCJ Research, Unity Ventures, KPCB and ZhenFund invested an undisclosed sum in the firm in 2012. Last year, it received $10 million in a Series B round led by Nokia Growth Partners, with participation from TrustBridge and KPCB.

Food-ordering platforms enjoy a prominent position in China's online-to-offline (O2O) universe. According to internet consultancy iResearch, food will represent one of the largest vertical segments of the O2O market by 2015, with 300 million customers and a value in excess of RMB270 billion ($44 billion).

In January, Ele.me received $350 million in a Series E round of funding from CITIC Private Equity and Sequoia Capital as well as strategic investors Tencent Holdings, JD.com and Dianping. JD is also an investor in Daojia, having led a $50 million Series D round for the company in September 2014 alongside Macquarie Capital.

Other food-ordering services to receive VC backing include Etaoshi and Jinshisong.

Dianping recently received a $850 million round of investment that values the start-up at $4.05 billion.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Consumer
• China
• Venture
• TMT
• Consumer
• KPCB China Management
• Trustbridge