SoftBank leads $120m round for Chinese app platform Wandoujia

Founded in December 2010, Wandoujia started out by developing a desktop manager for Android operating system. It focused on building an app search engine rather than an app store and claims to be the first mobile platform in China that integrates content across apps, games, videos and music.

Wandoujia was among the first batch of projects incubated by Innovation Works and in 2011 received $8 million from the incubator and DCM. The company says it now has more than 300 million users, with daily app downloads exceeding 30 million.

Junyu Wang, the 27-year-old co-founder and CEO of Wandoujia, said he will use the new funding to accelerate the company's growth and more openly serve developers and the entire ecosystem by developing mobile search technology.

"When DCM first came into contact with Wandoujia in 2011, it stood out from the mass of app stores because of its unique app search model. Since last year, Wandoujia has entered into additional mobile content verticals with its search product," said Hurst Lin, a general partner at DCM.

"We believe that Wandoujia, with its record of achievements and persistent strength in products and technology, has an opportunity to become the leader of the mobile internet industry."

Innovation Works, founded in 2009, operates under an incubation-plus-investment model. The incubator identifies companies or individuals with potential and gets them started. Those deemed to have sufficient potential receive early-stage backing from the IWDF and venture capital firms are bought in as the companies gather momentum.

China Renaissance acted as the executive financial advisor for this investment.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Early-stage
• Technology
• China
• Venture
• Softbank China Venture Capital
• DCM-Doll Capital Management
• Innovation Works
• TMT