China female social networking site Meet You raises $151m
Meet You, a Chinese social networking platform for women, has completed a new round of funding worth RMB1 billion ($151 million), having removed its variable interest entity (VIE) structure in preparation for an onshore listing.
Meet You has been profitable, which encouraged almost all existing shareholders to re-up their investment, the company told local media.
Operated by Xiamen Information Technology, Meet You was launched in April 2013. It started as a menstruation tracking mobile app and has since added a social networking platform, allowing users to share views on topics ranging from diet, beauty to parenting. The platform has also expanded into e-commerce business.
The company has raised several rounds of VC funding, including a Series A round from China Renaissance K2 Ventures in 2013, and a $15 million Series B round led by Matrix Partners in early 2014. SIG Asia Investment led a $35 million Series C round, while Cathay Capital Private Equity led an undisclosed Series D round in December last year.
The company claims to have more than one billion registered users, with average daily active users of over five million. Its e-commerce platforms sell approximately 7 million different kinds of products, generating RMB100 million in sales every month. Online advertising revenue is estimated to reach RMB10 million per month.
Meet You was planning for a US IPO in the first half of this year, but it shifted its focus to onshore as Chinese investors are assumed to have a better understanding of its business, the company said. The new investment will be used to dismantle the VIEs and replace them with onshore funding.
The VIE structure exists to allow offshore investors to take equity stakes in companies that operate in sectors in which foreign participation is restricted. Assets to which the offshore investors can have no direct exposure are held in a parallel entity owned by Chinese nationals. Contractual agreements secure the interests of the parent company in the parallel entity. Locally listed companies are not permitted to have VIEs.
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