Baidu leads $150m round for China baby product e-commerce site

Existing investors Sequoia Capital, H Capital and several unnamed US-based PE firms also participated, the company told a press conference, local media reported. The partnership will see Mia get access to Baidu's big data analytics in order to reach target customers, while Baidu will set up a cross-border online payment system on Mia.

The online retailer started out as a store within Alibaba Group's Taobao C2C site in 2011 as Miyabaobei. It decided to set up its own retail platform in 2013 in response to strong sales.

Mia's first round of investment came in January of this year, with China Renaissance K2 Ventures and ZhenFund contributing an undisclosed sum, according to AVCJ Research. A Series B round worth $20 million took place in May as Sequoia joined the existing two investors. In December last year, H Capital led a $60 million Series C round for the company.

A fierce battle is being contested in China's childcare space. At least five online start-ups offering a combination of baby products and social networking have received funding in the last nine months, with four raising $100 million or more, including Mia.

BabyTree - which is backed by Matrix China Partners, SIG China and China Broadband Capital (CBC) - raised $300 million two months ago, mostly in debt form. Beibei, a discount retail platform for child-care products, received a $100 million round earlier this year led by Capital Today and New Horizon Capital.

Previously, Warburg Pincus backed Kidswant, an offline children's products retailer, while Lunar Capital acquired China Yeehoo Apparel.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• Venture
• China
• Baidu
• Sequoia Capital
• Venture
• TMT
• Consumer