China’s Meituan-Dianping launches $436m consumer fund

Meituan-Dianping is an anchor LP in the fund, which is targeting RMB1.5 billion for its first close. Commitments have also been received from Chinese corporates such as Tencent Holdings and New Hope Group, as well as several domestic fund-of-funds.

The vehicele will participate in pre-Series C funding rounds for consumer start-ups operating in the areas of retail, hotels and travel, leisure and dining. It will invest between RMB30 million and RMB100 million in each deal.

The fund will be managed under a new separate entity led by Shaohui Chen, senior vice president of Meituan-Dianping. Chen, who was previously a senior investment manager at Tencent, is responsible for Meituan-Dianping’s fundraising and corporate strategic investments. The company has also hired Yonghua Zhu, formerly a partner at Tiantu Capital and an executive director at Legend Holdings, as founding partner of the fund.

Dianping and Meituan - both of which had received substantial private equity and strategic funding - agreed to merge in October 2015. Three months later, the combined platform raised a $3.3 billion round from investors including Tencent, DST Global and Temasek Holdings. The round valued the company at $15 billion.

Over the past three years, Meitua-Dianping has invested in 30 companies, the company told local media. These include snack food delivery app Beequick (which was sold to Huimin earlier this month), manicure app Meijia Love, and hotel property management system BeyondHost. In September, it acquired mobile payment start-up Qiandaibao, facilitating an exit for several VC investors.

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• Topics
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• China
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• Tiantu Capital