Alibaba leads round for China VC-backed e-commerce site

By leveraging its location-based service (LBS) technology, Shandiangou allows consumer to place orders for a variety of fresh food and daily necessities from pharmacies, convenience stores and grocery stores within one-mile walking distance. It then completes deliveries within one hour of an order being placed.

The start-up launched in 2014 and now covers five major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It raised a Series A round of funding from Matrix Partners China and Vision Capital - founded by Alibaba co-founder Rongming Wu - early last year. In September, Shunwei Capital Partners and H Capital led a $25 million Series B round for the company.

As part of the deal, Shandiangou will cooperate with Alibaba in the areas of supply chain and logistics. This means users of Alibaba's Taobao mobile app will be able to take advantage of Shandiangou's convenience store services.

The net proceeds from the new round will be used for geographical expansion, R&D, and team building, according to a statement. The company will also work on strengthening its brand with better user experience.

Several last-mile delivery apps have received venture funding in the last year. Beequick, which provides similar services to Shandiangou, completed a Series C round worth $70 million, while Shanghai-based mobile app Linqu raised a Series B round led by Qiming Venture Partners.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Technology
• Consumer
• Expansion
• Support services
• China
• TMT
• Logistics
• Growth capital
• Alibaba Group
• Shunwei Capital Partners
• Matrix Partners