Oriza, SF Express invest $80m in China Wi-Fi operator
Oriza Holdings and SF Express, a Chinese logistics company, have led an $80 million Series A round of funding for 100MSH, a start-up that provides public Wi-Fi networks to commercial operators.
Shenzhen-based 100MSH was founded in 2010. Its products and services include free Wi-Fi network service programing, equipment supply, installation and maintenance. It also provides mobile marketing solutions to the social retail industry, in order to help merchants generate more business through an online-to-offline (O2O) platform.
The start-up currently serves more than 160 Chinese cities, including Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. More than 140,000 merchants use 100MSH's Wi-Fi network, which covers over 180,000 hotspots. Daily active users have reached 4.5 million.
The company plans to use the new round of funding to upgrade its technology and expand its service networks to 300 Chinese cities by 2016, it told local media.
Shenzhen-headquartered SF Express has built a nationwide logistics network that includes Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. It has also expanded overseas to South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and the US. Two years ago, a consortium comprising CITIC Capital, Oriza Holdings and China Merchants Group bought a 25% stake in the express delivery services provider.
Formerly Suzhou Ventures, Oriza has operations in private equity and credit finance. The firm has over RMB23 billion ($3.7 billion) in assets under management.
Last year, industry peer WiWide raised a Series C round worth $49 million from Tencent Holdings and Chinese restaurant reviews site Dianping. Chao WiFi received $2.4 million in a Series A funding round from Meridian Capital, while Witown secured an undisclosed sum of investment from Alibaba Group.
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