Alibaba's Tmall leads $300m round for PE-backed Yiguo

The majority of the funding will be used to develop ExFresh, Yiguo's cold-chain logistics subsidiary. Alibaba said it will leverage ExFresh’s capabilities to expand its delivery reach and gain better control of distribution and logistics while allowing its grocery division – Tmall Supermarket – to work more closely with Yiguo.

Founded in 2005, Yiguo sells seafood and fruit from domestic and overseas suppliers. Its online platform manages the entire retail process, from procurement through cold-chain logistics and product distribution. Yiguo – which has 11 self-run cold chain facilities in 10 Chinese cities – claims to process an average of 200,000 orders per day. It guarantees one-day delivery in major cities, rising to two days in smaller urban centers.

Yiguo wants to expand ExFresh’s infrastructure so that it can process about 500,000 daily orders by the end of the year, and reach five million orders by 2020. “With the integration of Tmall and Yiguo, ExFresh will be able to provide even better cold-chain services for fresh-food vendors. The tie-up would drive a better shopping experience for customers,” Jet Jing, Alibaba’s vice president, said in a statement.

Alibaba invested more than $10 million in Yiguo in 2013 and returned the following year, alongside Yunfeng Capital, with a Series B round. Last year, Yiguo raised more than $500 million in a Series C round comprising two tranches: an initial round from KKR and Alibaba and an extended Series C round led by domestic home appliance retailer Suning Commerce Group.

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• Topics
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